Unfolding intense three hours of complex themes
The cast of ‘August Osage County’ gives a brilliant performance under the direction of Bimsara Premaratna
Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer and Tony Award winning ‘August Osage County’, directed and produced by well-known actress Bimsara Premaratna (donning the director’s hat here), showcased at the Wendt on February 22, 24 and 25 – an experience that was surely one for the books with a Colombo audience more accustomed to comedies and musicals. It was notably a challenging one to take on, but the cast and crew delivered nothing short of an impressive staging of this hard-hitting contemporary stage play.
The name of the play is based on a poem by Howard Stark, representing the general setting of the play; August, the time of month and ‘Osage County’, Oklahoma – the place where the series of dramatic events unfolds. The chaos that sequentially unravels is caused by the disappearance of Beverly Weston, husband and father of three daughters whose messy family lives are magnified because of this occurrence that physically brings them all together yet drives them further apart. Running for almost three hours, the play seamlessly tackled complex themes of generational trauma, drug addiction, marital relationships, physical and emotional manipulation and abuse, as well as touching on the concept of native land.
The curtains opened to a set of two layers; a dining room and an upstairs living room, representing the interior of a middle-class American home. A serene ambience was created with the sounds of running water, as Beverly, played by Mohamed Adamaly walks on stage, beginning his monologue that set the tone for the play. This somewhat whimsical narrative of life, is addressed to the newly hired Native American maid, Johnna (Tahsha De Silva) before the central character of the play, Violet Weston (Ashini Fernando) walks in.
The nature of the matriarch’s insufferable persona is immediately understood with Ashini’s excellent portrayal of Violet, convincingly sustained throughout the play. Recently diagnosed with mouth cancer, it is ultimately revealed that Violet manipulates her doctors into prescribing her unnecessary amounts of pills just as she manipulates all the members of her family to be under her control.
As the plot unfolds, a series of hidden, intentionally suppressed conundrums is gradually brought to light. The audience is exposed to the first extension of the dysfunctional family; the scene set in the living room with a
humorous conversation between Violet’s sister Mattie Fae Aiken (Dilini Perera) and her husband Charles Aiken (Shiyan Jayaweera). Ivy Weston, one of Violet’s daughters, (Tasmin Anthonisz)is also present. Ivy appears closed off from the family, and the reason is subsequently revealed; she in a secret relationship with her first cousin, Charles Aiken Jr (Rehan Amaratunga), Mattie Fae’s son. However, the shocking revelation is to follow much later – Mattie
Fae confesses that Little Charles is, in fact, hers and Beverly’s son, placing them in an incestuous relationship. Dilini’s was a fine portrayal of Mattie Fae’s catty personality with good comedic timing while Tasmin effectively elicited the audience’s sympathy with a nuanced portrayal.
What seemed like a playful dynamic between Mattie Fae’s conspicuously incompatible relationship with Charles is revealed to be a mutual hatred, stemming from the incompetence of their unemployed son. This notion was executed smoothly between the other characters, paralleling the disintegration of the relationships among members of the other families. In the Fordham family, it was revealed that Bill Fordham (Delon Weerasinghe), husband of Barbara (Thanuja Jayawardene), another daughter of Beverly’s, was having an affair with a student of his. Thanuja embodied her character’s traits – the determined but frustrated wife, and with her diction and articulation complimenting her engaging stage presence, she was truly an asset to the play. The swift exchanges between Barbara and Bill were captivating to watch, not just because they were entertaining and well executed but because of how real they were.
Infidelity appeared to be a common theme in all families, yet it was portrayed in the most uncomfortable way between Karen Weston (Purnima Pilapitiya) and her fiance, Steve Heidebrecht (Amesh De Silva). Both actors nailed their parts - the reckless, flighty, self-absorbed young woman and the shady businessman who, despite being all talk, is purposefully oblique about his job. Steve turns out to be a pedophile as he attempts to seduce the 14-year-old Jean, daughter of Barbara and Bill. Hard to watch as this scene was, it was even more disturbing to see Jean denying the accusations. Well portrayed by Amaya Fernando as an irritable teenager, smoking pot, using inappropriate language and acting older than her age, what was sad was the knowledge that her behaviour was a result of her parents’ neglect.
Reaching its climax with a post funeral dinner scene, that was not an easy one to portray given the heightened emotions at the end of the play, it was a poignant moment to see Violet alone in the arms of Johnna – the housemaid she despised, after being abandoned by her loved ones.
The scene changes were flawlessly done, with the actors making it part of their routine, like the clearing of plates on the dining table. Given the length of the play, perhaps certain scenes could have been slightly more potent, possibly in terms of timing and movement, but nonetheless, Bimsara did a fantastic job at directing what was clearly a hard play with sensitive themes.
Overall, the acting was superb and the cast and crew should be very proud of themselves for pulling off ‘August Osage County’ with such aplomb.