August: Osage County
by Tracy Lettspublished
February 1st 2008
by Theatre Communications Group
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binding
Paperback, 96 pages
literary awards
Pulitzer Prize for Drama (2008)
isbn
1559363304
(isbn13: 9781559363303)
description
One of the most bracing and critically acclaimed plays in recent Broadway history, August: Osage County is a portrait of the dysfunctional Amer...more
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Read in May, 2008
he winner of the Pulitzer for drama for 2007. The play takes place in the tiny town of Pawhuska, Oklahoma in the heat of August (hence the title). Beverly Weston (who despite the first name, is a man) goes missing for several days, and is later found to be dead, likely from suicide. His wife Violet, her sisters and their husbands, and Beverly’s and Violet’s grown children make up the cast of characters. They are a completely dysfunctional family – Beverly was an alcoholic, Violet is hooked...more
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I have difficulty with plays I have not actually seen but Amanda's review and everything I have read about August: Osage County impell me to give it a try. Later - actually reading it This grabbed me by the throat the minute I started in. When the 69-year old Beverly Weston introduces himself in the first scene by saying, "...My wife takes pills and I drink. That's the bargain we've struck...one of the bargains, just one paragraph of our marriage contract...cruel covenant. She takes pills and I drink. I don't drink because she takes pills. As to whether she takes pills because I drink...I learned long ago not to speak for my wife. The reasons we partake are anymore inconsequential. The facts are: my wife takes pills and I drink.&...more
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Read in September, 2008
recommended to Amanda by:
le bricoleur and other theatre nerds
Oh. My. God. This play deserves every hint of praise and recognition it's ever been given. A perfect blend of realistic household bullshit and and spectacularly weird fuckeduppery, the Weston family grabbed my heart and ripped it out through my tearducts.
How can you know when enough is enough? Or when it's not enough? How do you swim through oceanic waves of family crisis, when the breakers are nothing but violent reflections of your own personal doom? Goddamnit. This play is both human ...more
How can you know when enough is enough? Or when it's not enough? How do you swim through oceanic waves of family crisis, when the breakers are nothing but violent reflections of your own personal doom? Goddamnit. This play is both human ...more
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4 comments
Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
fans of soap opera and big messy stage families
Extravagantly melodramatic and full of withering, viciously funny dialogue, Letts' play reminded me at least in tone more of Albee and Pinter than O'Neill (who, let's face it, had the long and melodramatic down pat but lacked the "funny").
A family with let's say some issues convenes after the father's disappearance, and over the course of a few nights rip into one another, reveal, repress. You know, family. I was very entertained by the read, and found myself thoroughly enmeshed ...more
A family with let's say some issues convenes after the father's disappearance, and over the course of a few nights rip into one another, reveal, repress. You know, family. I was very entertained by the read, and found myself thoroughly enmeshed ...more
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I loved loved loved this play. I take issue with most dialogue in plays because it's often too showy. It's big and overdone, and that's how plays are supposed to be I know, but reading plays straight rarely does it for me because they're so .... dramatic!
This play did not have that "Please, God! Some realism!" effect on me. The characters are remarkably flawed, unknowingly hilarious, and filled with enough rage and bitterness to make me feel incredibly fortunate to be a member of my ...more
This play did not have that "Please, God! Some realism!" effect on me. The characters are remarkably flawed, unknowingly hilarious, and filled with enough rage and bitterness to make me feel incredibly fortunate to be a member of my ...more
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Read in September, 2008
This award winning play is dark and intense. It touches on a lot of family issues. How do families communicate or grow apart when they live thousands of miles away? What is the best way to care for ailing parents? Ahh yes and what happens when people who are related, but don't necessarily get along all convene at a table together! Read it and find out.
I wish I could have seen this play in person. The story has surprises and realistic and biting dialogue. The stage directions and desc...more
I wish I could have seen this play in person. The story has surprises and realistic and biting dialogue. The stage directions and desc...more
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When there is as much hype about a piece of art as there has been about Letts' newest play, I often approach it wondering if there is substance behind the buzz. "August: Osage County" lives up to the praise; it is a captivating, skillfully written script! If it plays nearly as well as it reads, it is undoubtedly a powerful, profound, knock-out theatrical experience.
My one bit of criticism is that I do feel the last act is a bit choppy. It is a brilliant, moving, fitting conclusion...more
My one bit of criticism is that I do feel the last act is a bit choppy. It is a brilliant, moving, fitting conclusion...more
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I bought this book very recently, but, inasmuch as I saw the play just last Wednesday afternoon, my review really is about the production. I haven't yet read the play. (I did read the first scene when I bought the book.)
AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY is a cross between LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, THE GLASS MENAGERIE and YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU.
A friend of mine says the title, which bears repeating in this context (so, repeat after me: AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY) is the worst title for a great play, ev...more
AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY is a cross between LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, THE GLASS MENAGERIE and YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU.
A friend of mine says the title, which bears repeating in this context (so, repeat after me: AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY) is the worst title for a great play, ev...more
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4 comments
Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in September, 2008
recommends it for:
fans of The Squid and the Whale
This play is the what I was hoping for in taking a 21st Century Drama class. Though its themes are universal (fucked up families are tales as old as time), it is contemporary in its humor, in its (nonstop) swearing, in its exploration of modern crises: addiction, drug use, divorce, youthful rebellion. It is relevant and sharp and funny and satisfying. I cannot go into further detail, because when something is TRULY good, I think it's hard to describe that goodness properly. But you feel it, in t...more
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Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
Anyone (some graphic language)
A family patriarch goes missing and the family gathers at the old homestead to offer aid and comfort. What's delivered is altogether different.
No new ground is covered by the play - family secrets are revealed, sins confessed, vicious tirades and arguments abound. What makes this play readable (and I would think watchable) is the way in which these cliched happenings are built up and the way they explode.
Letts is also great with a humourous line. Very funny, painful dialogue and sit...more
No new ground is covered by the play - family secrets are revealed, sins confessed, vicious tirades and arguments abound. What makes this play readable (and I would think watchable) is the way in which these cliched happenings are built up and the way they explode.
Letts is also great with a humourous line. Very funny, painful dialogue and sit...more
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Read in August, 2008
What am I going to do when these lazy days of summer come to an end? I have fallen in love with being able to dive into a new book every day.
It seems I've given more five star ratings in the last few days than I ever have before, but this script definitely lived up to its hype. This play received every major theatrical award for the 2007-2008 Broadway season. Just a few scenes in, you will realize why.
The characters are beautifully realized, the emotions are layered and the drama is c...more
It seems I've given more five star ratings in the last few days than I ever have before, but this script definitely lived up to its hype. This play received every major theatrical award for the 2007-2008 Broadway season. Just a few scenes in, you will realize why.
The characters are beautifully realized, the emotions are layered and the drama is c...more
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Read in May, 2008
Zowie. The shockers are still reverberating, like a man who was struck by lightning fifteen years ago researching its effects today. Or something. Otherwise, I think A Martinez and Marcy Walker (aka Cruz and Eden) would be well-cast as Barbara and her husband. The experience of reading this, the ka-pows and jolts, in retrospect, is more valuable than what I think back on as the meaning of the play. What are we to do with this, other than have flashbacks to our favorite afternoon soap opera...more
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Read in October, 2008
Wow. This play started as a small Chicago original work and has now moved to Broadway, won a Tony and is now making it into the standards list.
This is a wonderful play for women. 2 60+ women, 3 20-40 women, and a girl of about 14. There are some men too, but it is a female dominated play.
It is a very dark comedy of family pain. The father, a famous poet, goes missing at the very top of the play. All of the daughters make their way to the homestead and comedy/pain ensues.
Read it. If ...more
This is a wonderful play for women. 2 60+ women, 3 20-40 women, and a girl of about 14. There are some men too, but it is a female dominated play.
It is a very dark comedy of family pain. The father, a famous poet, goes missing at the very top of the play. All of the daughters make their way to the homestead and comedy/pain ensues.
Read it. If ...more
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Read in July, 2008
Although I have not read it, I did just see it on Broadway. The words incestuous and dysfunctional do not even begin to describe this family. It is brilliantly acted though, Amy Morton should get the Tony nomination. I'm sure Deanna Dunagan is fantastic as well though I saw her understudy. It was three full acts but it did keep my attention for most of it.
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Read in June, 2008
Tragic and hilarious. The perfect mix of dark humor and real drama -- or at least energized conflict (if that makes sense). It's amazing how the many characters stand apart on the page. Great dialog, some beautiful lines, and satisfying homages to other plays (Long Day's Journey... being the most obvious).
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Read in June, 2008
the hype around this play is justified. definitely one of the better plays i've read in a while. it's a little melodramatic at points, but the melodrama doesn't get in the way of character development at all. each character is vivid and well-written. the play also feels distinctly american to me.
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So everyone is fucking raving about this goddamn play. I haven't seen it, but I have read it. It's really good. It doesn't cut to the bone quite as hard as say Long Day's Journey into Night, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, or Buried Child, but it's a lot funnier than those plays. And that counts.
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I thought this was a good play about a dysfunctional family, very Jerry Spriger meets Oscar Wilde but leaning more towards the confessional, tawdry side of things which we Americans seem to simply adore if daytime TV and the rate of the average tabloid's circulations are any fair indicators.
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Read in August, 2008
Read this play on a plane and was completely absorbed, alternately horrified and amused, which is Tracy Letts' speciality.
If Eugene O'Neill were writing today, this is the kind of drugged-out, incestuous family dysfunction that would fill his plays.
(p.s. - plays make great plane reading)
If Eugene O'Neill were writing today, this is the kind of drugged-out, incestuous family dysfunction that would fill his plays.
(p.s. - plays make great plane reading)
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