August: Osage County **** TNT
Founded over thirty years ago, American company Steppenwolf proves that its still at the top of its game with this multi-award winning production. In the style of his predecessors, Eugene O’Neill & Tennessee Williams, Tracy Letts’ corrosive drama isn’t afraid to take its time to explore the deeper tensions and secrets underlying the surface antagonism of an unplanned family reunion when drunk, former poet Beverly Weston disappears from the Oklahoma home he shares with his sickly, pill-popping wife Violet.
With bitter comedy and a cruel eye for exposing the damage that one’s nearest and dearest can inflict with a not-so-casual word, this ensemble piece packs a hefty emotional punch during its three-and-a-half hours. Eldest daughter Barbara (excellent Amy Morton) battles hot flushes and the intense summer heat while trying to hide the fact that her husband (Jeff Perry) has left her for a young student. Florida-based Karen has brought along her latest beau, in the mistaken belief that she’s finally found herself a really good man, and stay-at-home Ivy — who probably has — really should have looked elsewhere.
Played out on Todd Rosenthal’s three-storey, outsize doll’s house of a set, this is as much a comment on the state of America as on one extremely dysfunctional Midwestern family, and the acting — including Rondi Reed’s knockout performance as Violet’s brash, vulgar sister — is superb.
Founded over thirty years ago, American company Steppenwolf proves that its still at the top of its game with this multi-award winning production. In the style of his predecessors, Eugene O’Neill & Tennessee Williams, Tracy Letts’ corrosive drama isn’t afraid to take its time to explore the deeper tensions and secrets underlying the surface antagonism of an unplanned family reunion when drunk, former poet Beverly Weston disappears from the Oklahoma home he shares with his sickly, pill-popping wife Violet.
With bitter comedy and a cruel eye for exposing the damage that one’s nearest and dearest can inflict with a not-so-casual word, this ensemble piece packs a hefty emotional punch during its three-and-a-half hours. Eldest daughter Barbara (excellent Amy Morton) battles hot flushes and the intense summer heat while trying to hide the fact that her husband (Jeff Perry) has left her for a young student. Florida-based Karen has brought along her latest beau, in the mistaken belief that she’s finally found herself a really good man, and stay-at-home Ivy — who probably has — really should have looked elsewhere.
Played out on Todd Rosenthal’s three-storey, outsize doll’s house of a set, this is as much a comment on the state of America as on one extremely dysfunctional Midwestern family, and the acting — including Rondi Reed’s knockout performance as Violet’s brash, vulgar sister — is superb.
Lyttelton at the National, South Bank, SE1 Phone: - 020 7452 3000 Until 21 January Tickets £41 - £10
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