Overview
Synopsis
Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best New Play, August: Osage County centers around the Weston family, brought together after their patriarch, world-class poet and alcoholic Beverly Weston, disappears. The matriarch, Violet, depressed and addicted to pain pills and “truth-telling,” is joined by her three daughters and their problematic lovers, who harbor their own deep secrets, her sister Mattie Fae and her family, well-trained in the Weston family art of cruelty, and finally, the observer of the chaos, the young Cheyenne housekeeper Johnna, who was hired by Beverly just before his disappearance. Holed up in the large family estate in Osage County, Oklahoma, tensions heat up and boil over in the ruthless August heat. Bursting with humor, vivacity, and intelligence, August: Osage County is is both dense and funny, vicious and compassionate, enormous and unstoppable.
Show Information
Context
A unique, expansive look at one dysfunctional family on the brink of self-destruction, Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County heralded a new kind of voice in the American theatre. The play emerged from Letts’ own personal experiences growing up in Oklahoma. His grandfather, like the character Beverly Weston, was a poet who committed suicide when Letts was 10. His grandmother, like Bev’s wife Violet, turned to prescription drug abuse, which had left a lasting effect on his family. From this
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ACT I
Scene i
A few weeks have passed since the prologue, and Beverly Weston has gone missing. Violet’s sister Mattie Fae and her husband Charlie, along with Violet’s daughter Ivy, have all come to the house. Violet enters and tells the group that the sheriff, who was a classmate of her daughter Barbara’s in high school, said that Bev’s pontoon boat at the lake is missing. “That’s bad news about the boat,” says Charlie when Violet leaves. Alone with her mother, Ivy tells Violet
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Character Portrayals
See StageAgent members who have performed roles in August: Osage County.
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Key Terms
In theatre, addiction may refer both to a character’s struggle with compulsive behavior as a theme and to the real-life issue affecting performers or audiences. Plays about addiction often explore psychological, social, and moral dimensions. It is a recurring motif in modern drama due to its human intensity.
A genre that combines elements of humor and morbidity, exploring serious themes through satire or irony.
A prestigious U.S. award for achievements in journalism, literature, and drama. Many modern plays that reflect social and political themes have received this honor.
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