August. Well. It was a solid piece of
Contemporary American Theater about
Contemporary America. This may be a completely unwarranted claim, but it seems to me that this particular subject area is lacking in lasting content. Sure there are some good plays, but how long will they remain relevant? In the age of
Bushisms,
Terrorisms and the like, how often do we see something evocative that is both contemporary and timeless?*
Of course the geographic location, syntax and social
niceties implicit in the text lend itself to a time/place setting. In that way, the action in The Glass
Menagerie will never escape turn of the century St. Louis. That's true, but in both cases a good production of the play make it clear that each play, at its core, is about the nature of a particular protagonist (or group protagonist for
SG) in relation to their family.
August is long, but it's worth it. Over the course of the three acts it becomes clear that Barbara, the oldest daughter, portrayed brilliantly by Amy Morton, is doing everything in her power to put things in order and under control. Theater wouldn't be theater without an obstacle, and Tracy
Letts delivers. Order in the face of a suicide/murder? inspired family reunion ripe with alcoholism, incest, and more makes for a pretty interesting set of questions posed to the audience.
On top of it all, the most
poignant relationship lies between Barbara and Beverly, her mother. I was waiting patiently for the inevitable moment where they were compared, and i was not
disappointed. After Beverly, in Barbara's presence manages to completely crush Barbara's younger sister Ivy, Ivy lashes out at Barb. Barbara follows her and yells "Mom told you, it wasn't me!" with the predictably inevitable but non the less stinging response being "There's no difference."
I think the
success of August lies in the fact that despite being clear, it makes no effort to beat you over the head. Certain choices
could have probably been improved upon BUT the team stuck to their guns and followed through. Definitely commendable. To that degree there's not
toooo much to find fault with. It didn't help that Ivy, supposedly in her mid 40's looked like she was 25... but what can you do! Very good/detailed work on scenic and lighting fronts. One comment with respect to sound on behalf of my companion who said something along the lines of: "when will sound designers stop using that falling axe sound? I mean, when you have an abstract soundtrack...it doesn't seem too necessary"
Agreed. And, I have a LOT of respect for directors who can get the final moments of the play perfect. I think the last one that comes to mind in my experience (of productions I have not been a part of) is when I saw The
Metamorphoses at the Circle in the Square Theater way back when. This was almost better.
To close, I'm excited by the
possibility of timeless American theater about contemporary America...especially since it's hard for me to come to terms with the fact that there is a contemporary America beyond the political and The Music Television. Plays like this, ones which force us to confront our own interpersonal relationships, affirms that theater is in fact doing positive work with respect to our country's soul.
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*In this case, by timeless I mean that dating the play has little impact on the effectiveness of its content.
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