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A review by bojangacic
August: Osage County by Tracy Letts
5.0
A missing, and soon to be found dead, husband and father. A fervent matriarch suffering from a terminal illness. A detached, dysfunctional family gathered to bury a man for whom none of them cultivated a particular understanding. The Westons are finally succumbed to the notion they have been running from, and dreaded most- facing each other.
It is a commonly accepted truth that family can indeed work both ways. Weather it helps you back to your feet, or breaks both your legs, a single fact remains- when a gathering of close relatives is inevitable, a vein is bound to pop out of one's forehead.
Fortunately, most families aren't alike the Westons. Why is the poor bastard pushing up the daisies prematurely? The answer come well before the closing of first act. Violet, the pill-popping mother, begrudges her eldest daughter Barbara for leaving the stifling provincialism, punishes her middle one Ivy for being the only one left, and pays no mind to the wandering Karen. When all the blood relatives reunite in the sweltering heat of the Oklahoman bleak house, with ''mater familias'' spreading her venomous rethorique, all the secrets shall begin to tingle under the surface, and break free.
Mr. Letts' literary genes have bestowed him with a rare gift, that of sensing the slightest shifts in human emotions, as well as the awareness of how much all of us are unstable at core. All it takes is a certain somebody with certain knowledge, and the willingness to push our buttons. All three daughters appear in emotional control and clear vision of their intention. Throughout mutual resentment all the participants ''lose it''.
The dialogue reaches splendid heights during dramatic peaks. In the mixture of humorous and tragic, this Pulitzer Prize winning play reveals more about people, in only a few brief scenes, then most lengthiest book of our time ever will. All the characters become a familiarity to us by the end.
A play remains the literary genre with its own set of rules. With the descriptive aids mostly absent , an author must say more with having less at disposal. Letts plays by the rules, he pulls no punches, every word hits as if you yourself were saying it. What a marvelous achievement!
I will return to Letts' work in the near future. While reading ''August: Osage County'' I couldn't stop thinking about Meryl Streep saying those lines. Most of you can agree that December can't come soon enough.
It is a commonly accepted truth that family can indeed work both ways. Weather it helps you back to your feet, or breaks both your legs, a single fact remains- when a gathering of close relatives is inevitable, a vein is bound to pop out of one's forehead.
Fortunately, most families aren't alike the Westons. Why is the poor bastard pushing up the daisies prematurely? The answer come well before the closing of first act. Violet, the pill-popping mother, begrudges her eldest daughter Barbara for leaving the stifling provincialism, punishes her middle one Ivy for being the only one left, and pays no mind to the wandering Karen. When all the blood relatives reunite in the sweltering heat of the Oklahoman bleak house, with ''mater familias'' spreading her venomous rethorique, all the secrets shall begin to tingle under the surface, and break free.
Mr. Letts' literary genes have bestowed him with a rare gift, that of sensing the slightest shifts in human emotions, as well as the awareness of how much all of us are unstable at core. All it takes is a certain somebody with certain knowledge, and the willingness to push our buttons. All three daughters appear in emotional control and clear vision of their intention. Throughout mutual resentment all the participants ''lose it''.
The dialogue reaches splendid heights during dramatic peaks. In the mixture of humorous and tragic, this Pulitzer Prize winning play reveals more about people, in only a few brief scenes, then most lengthiest book of our time ever will. All the characters become a familiarity to us by the end.
A play remains the literary genre with its own set of rules. With the descriptive aids mostly absent , an author must say more with having less at disposal. Letts plays by the rules, he pulls no punches, every word hits as if you yourself were saying it. What a marvelous achievement!
I will return to Letts' work in the near future. While reading ''August: Osage County'' I couldn't stop thinking about Meryl Streep saying those lines. Most of you can agree that December can't come soon enough.