“August: Osage County”
Where: Eisenhower Theater, The Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, 1:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; through Dec. 20. Additional performances at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 3, 10, 17. No performances Dec. 6 and Dec. 20
Info: $25 to $80; 202-467-4600; kennedy-center.org
“My wife takes pills and I drink. That’s the bargain we’ve struck.” In the Kennedy Center’s outstanding production of “August: Osage County,” that’s how Beverly (Jon DeVries), the patriarch of the Weston family, explains his situation to Johnna (DeLanna Studi), a young woman he’s hiring to look after his wife.
Beverly’s reductive philosophy doesn’t begin to explain all the problems that exist in his home in Pawhuska, Okla., however. After Beverly’s brief appearance in the first scene of Tracy Letts’ searing tragicomedy, he disappears, and his disappearance becomes the occasion for a family gathering, during which secrets are revealed, infidelity, divorce, addiction and incest are dealt with, taboos are broken, hair is pulled and crockery is broken.
But “August: Osage County” is not about darkness for darkness’ sake. The bloodletting exists as a way of getting into shadowy corners where truth lies. And a byproduct of the truth-as-trauma approach is humor, caused by the friction created when Letts’ people grate against one another.
The first and most formidable character is Beverly’s wife, Violet (Estelle Parsons) an unapologetic pill popper who has problems with all three of her daughters: Ivy (Angelica Torn), Barbara (Shannon Cochran) and Karen (Amy Warren). Parsons is brilliant as the funny, sad, engaging, angry, understandable Violet. Having grown up abused and neglected, she is furious at the way her daughters take the ease of their lives for granted.
The daughters have problems of their own. Ivy, who never left home, resents the fact that she has borne the brunt of her parents’ sicknesses. Barbara resents her unfaithful husband Bill (Jeff Still). Karen comes home bringing her slick, skirt-chasing fiance, Steve (Laurence Lau) and a deep-seated insecurity.
Director Anna Shapiro emphasizes how every individual in Letts’ script affects the others. She also effectively highlights moments when characters support rather than harass one another: A father supports his son, the sisters laugh together. And at the end, Johnna, the only centered, un-needy character in the play, implies that, though there may be more thunder and lightning coming to Osage County, there is also comfort and steadiness in the midst of the storm.
