August: Osage County

EAN:9781559363303 Label:Theatre Communications Group Author:Tracy Letts Binding:Paperback

Well written Excellent play!. Touches on many issues of the dysfunctional American family2009-02-20 Rating 5. Letts presents a modern dark comedy while adhering to the traditional play structure. Be sure to check out the poem which the play is named after. See the acknowledgments. As far as I am concerned, AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY is a perfect example of the present state of American theater: it is trying too hard to be like the sit-coms and soaps on TV and screwball comedies in the movies Contemporary American Theater. There was a time when theater would have something profound to say in an artistic manner, such as O'Neill's THE ICEMAN COMETH and LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, Williams' THE GLASS MENAGERIE and A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, Miller's DEATH OF A SALESMAN and THE CRUCIBLE, Brecht's THE GOOD PERSON OF SZECHUAN and MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN, etc2009-02-02 Rating 2. Nowadays we are seeing light-weight plays, such as DRIVING MISS DAISY, THE HEIDI CHRONICLES, EASTERN STANDARD, etc. I'm not surprised AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY won the Pulitzer Prize--so did DRIVING MISS DAISY, and that's not saying much. It is surprising that the Pulitzer Prize once went to a monumental achievement like DEATH OF A SALESMAN and now it's going to something like AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY. Not only has the greed of capitalism ruined Wall Street, but it has also ruined Broadway. When Broadway stops caring about huge profits, then the American theater may regain its excellence. And people like me will start going back to the theater. (Don't get me started on Broadway musicals that are remakes of movies. ) . August: Osage County is Tracy Letts' Pulitzer Prize-winning play, which debuted in 2007 AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY by Tracy Letts. It is typically billed as a dark comedy or tragicomedy2008-10-13 Rating 3. It deals with the reunion of a family in rural Oklahoma after the death of its patriarch. During this time, skeletons come out of closets, and drama ensues. The play features 13 characters, and most of them get a substantial amount of attention from the author. Balancing all these characters is something Letts does particularly well, and this is especially highlighted when there are two and three conversations going on simultaneously. Very few of these characters are the least bit sympathetic. Most of them spend most of their time hashing out their problems in nasty, unpleasant ways. Letts seems to be under the impression that the way to go here is to create as many irreconcilable issues as he can and then not resolve any of them. Some people may think that makes good drama; others will rightly ask, "so what?" and "what's the point?". August: Osage County certainly has its moments, but it's never particularly innovative or impressive. I, for one, am hard-pressed to understand just what about the play was Pulitzer-worthy. By far one of the best plays I've read in a long time, maybe even since my love affair with 'Angels in America A must-read for literature and theatre lovers alike.... ' Bitingly funny and horribly tragic, I've yet to find one disappointed fellow reader of Letts' masterpiece2008-10-06 Rating 5. I saw this play in previews here in NYC and told a friend: This play is going to win the Pulitzer, the Tony, everything A Classic For Decades To Come!. And I was right2008-10-01 Rating 5. The play shocked me on a personal level because so much of what he wrote about this family was MY family. Three girls. Mother who had problems. Absent father emotionally. I was fortunate to see Letts father in the lead role before he passed away a few months later. I don't know how many times I have said over the past 40 years, "If we knew the future, we wouldn't get out of bed. " When those words came out of a character's mouth on stage, my mouth flew open in shock! The Native American in the play also echoed my life. The cousin who was a brother was, in my life, a brother who was a cousin. Yes, Mr. Letts has read my mind and put it into a play. The acting was beyond mesmerizing. The actors are brilliant in each part. The play is 3 1/2 hours long but the hours go by so fast you can't believe it's over when the curtain comes down. You want more! The set is spectacular. The entire evening from beginning to end was the best time I've had on Broadway in my life. You simply cannot miss seeing this play if you're in NYC. If you do you'll regret it. Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama "A tremendous achievement in American playwriting: a tragicomic populist portrait of a tough land and a tougher people "-Time Out New York "Tracy Letts' August: Osage County is what O'Neill would be writing in 2007. Letts has recaptured the nobility of American drama's mid-century heyday while still creating something entirely original