August: Osage County - 1/2 2 pm - SPOILERS

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 2:56pm

I saw A:OC yesterday. Before I get into a review, let me say one thing: If it's your first time seeing the show, I would NOT advise sitting in the first row. I could hardly see anything that happened in the attic, and most of the action behind the couch was blocked, especially when the hide-a-bed was pulled out. The dining room table also obstructed my view of Steve and Jean's scene together in the third act, and when Violet started getting caustic during the dinner scene, I couldn't see her face because Barbara's head was in the way.

I'd been meaning to see this since it opened, but I kept putting it off in favor of other shows. After seeing it yesterday afternoon, I cannot believe that this is what I have been missing. At the moment, I think the best thing the show has to offer is Johanna Day's performance. Her breakdown on the stairs after she finds out Bev's dead was heartbreaking. My only complaint was that she never really terrified me. When I read the play, I pictured Barbara as a cold, bitter woman. I never really got that feeling with Day's performance. I also expected Barbara to be ferocious during the "Eat the fish, bitch!" scene, but she really wasn't that bad. (Also, I presume Ivy's jumping up and down and screaming at Barbara was meant to silence the whole theatre, but most people kept laughing.) I never saw Amy Morton, but something tells me she played Barbara somewhat colder than Day does.

Estelle Parsons is marvelous as Violet. The image of her sobbing in Johnna's lap at the end of the play was absolutely chilling.

Right now, the play's weakest link is Amy Warren. She portrayed Karen as a giddy caricature. Her Karen is also utterly annoying. I know Karen is supposed to be desperate and clingy, but, played by Warren, she is a stupid little girl.

Also, I was not particularly impressed with Madeleine Martin and Samantha Ross. Johnna is the spiritual center of the play. I just think she needs to seem stronger than she is when played by Ross. Madeleine Martin's main problem is her voice. I feel like it's too cutesy and high for Jean, and when she starts screaming at Barbara in the third act, it's hard to understand what she's saying.

Though the show is brilliant, the audience reactions were pretty bad. I know it's a funny show, but they laughed nonstop, even at things that weren't supposed to be funny. (For instance, they were roaring when Barbara starts choking Violet. How is that funny?) They also laughed when Violet was sobbing in Barbara's arms in the first act, though that was more of a nervous laughter.

All in all, the show is absolutely wonderful. The highlights are any fight scenes between Johanna Day and Frank Wood. They are marvelous together, though I think Wood could have been a little more intense.

Anyway, feel free to disagree with any of this. Just my opinion.

[Kevinoes]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 6:38pm

First and foremost, your opinion is yours and I do not object to it.

I saw the August 2008 cast and was fortunate enough to see Amy Morton as Barbara. I was disappointed to have missed Deanna Dunugan's run but Estelle Parsons was fantastic as Violet. With regards to your thoughts of Barbara being bitter, Amy's Barbara certainly did exude that as well as this seemingly ferocious stubborness and the demand to always being in control. Her amazing last moment in act two when she towers of Violet was chilling and powerful.

It's interesting that you mention the charicature treatment of Karen because Mariann Mayberry's original portrayal was very much a charicature as well. I grappled with this a while because for the most part, however derranged and weird their equilibrium, Tracey Letts gave each character their own sense of dignity. And here's Karen acting like a some spastic child. I think Ann Shapiro decided to bring that out. In an interview I heard, Mayberry described Karen as the "forgotten" daughter because by the time she was born (unplanned, probably) her parents were so consumed by their addictions and personal demons that she was neglected a lot in being raised. She's probably never really grown up, hence a lot of the described miss-steps in her life up to the play.

Agreed about the audience. The play has so many moments that flip from derrangely and hysterically funny to borderline sadistically funny to coldly shocking. The line is very fine, I think. It may be an imbalance of energy on stage, though sometimes, the audience does just get carried away. The strangling of Violet near the end of act two is not really supposed to be funny. I don't think the audience I was in laughed at that. I frankly remember being chilled... All that shouting from the family and Johnna holding back Jean who was screaming at her mother to stop.

So glad you got to see the show. It was the best show I saw when I visited the city last summer and to this day, I still think its the best play I've ever seen.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 6:59pm

I definitely respect all opinions regarding the characters, but in my personal opinion, Barbara isn't exactly terrifying, not in the way that Violet is anyways. There is an intense bitterness, yes, but there is such a level of vulnerability and sympathy written in the role that I don't see her as a terrifying character. Certainly the way Amy Morton played her I felt that I was rooting for her at all times, it might have to do with the fact that I "get" Barbara and her actions at a personal level, but I really think she is admirable, deeply wounded, but ultimately a survivor.
The "eat your fish, bitch" with Ivy coming out of the incest closet to her mom is an attempt from Barbara to hold the family together SOMEHOW. I think by that point the whole thing has crumbled so badly that she is doing her best to keep another event from making the family fall apart altogether. The way Amy Morton played Barbara, I felt she was the most admirable person in that house. Oh, and I never ever got "cold" from her performance, bitter yes but never cold.
Now I don't think Mariann Mayberry played Karen as a caricature (anymore than what's written on the page). She was hilarious at the beginning, as annoying as the role is intended to be (which is hinted by Barbara's reactions during Karen's monologue at the top of Act II), and ultimately chilling in her last scene with Amy Morton. Her reading of Karen's last line gave me chills.
I enjoyed Madeleine Martin's Wednesday-Addams-like portrayal of Jean, she is not giving a Tony-worthy performance or anything, but she is certainly believable as a teenager. I liked her Jean and she was a dozen times better than the awful girl I saw play Jean the first time I saw the play, her name was Molly something. Just awful.
I have seen Deanna Dunagan as Violet through certain not-so-legal methods, and while I thought she was great, I believe Estelle Parsons' portrayal of Vi Weston is unmatched. She is brilliant in the part, just brilliant. I hope she tours with the show--like she has expressed a desire to--so I get to see her in FL.

[Ole Chum]

Posted: 1/11/09 at 12:42pm

could not agree with you more about Johanna Day. Maybe it wasnt as cold as the original portrayal- but doesnt that make her slow degeneration into Violet MORE disturbing??

I too thought Day was the strongest part of the production when I saw it a few weeks ago.

Posted: 1/11/09 at 1:45pm

I have seen August twice, once with the original cast and again with the first replacements. They were both, excellent. Different, but excellent in their own ways. So far as the laughing goes. I think it was nervous laughter. We as an audience laugh, I think, more because we're uncomfortable and horrified by their disfuncionality (is that a word?). I often felt like I was evesdropping (sp?) on a family's private business. People have asked me if it is a funny play. I tell them you laugh but it's not funny. I think that's a good way to characterize it.