August: Osage County,   ISBN:9781559363303

Customer Rating: 

You'll find everything except murder in this play: suicide, adultery, mental retardation, drugs, sexual abuse, lots of spite and hatred, dysfunctional families and plain stupidity. Tracy Letts brings together so many people during this family gathering probably to endow each one of them with his or her very own very personal sin.

It's not a problem as such to have a dozen or more characters in the play. The problem is - each of them gets pretty much equal attention. There's no focus in the play, it just shows all members of the family - rather superficially. Yes, they are all recognizable, this can be seen as Letts' strength in being able to clearly show a person in so few words, but I felt rather lack of general idea in the play - other than "everything is so disgusting".

On the other hand may be this was Letts' idea, to have no plot and focus whatsoever, following Uncle Vanya's "nothing's happening" approach. In general he succeeded, showing this very bleak picture of American decline and fall, with the only "positive" person in the whole play being a Native American housemaid (political correctness?).

Here and there Letts's trying to be funny. One of the family members explains why it's important to maintain family connections this way: "You never know when someone might need a kidney." This gives you a good idea of how much fun you're going to get from this play. Don't take me wrong though, this is not why i gave the play just three stars. The reason is - it's not (to my taste) of what they call enduring quality, however true picture of american life it might give.

Customer Rating: 

This is a very interesting dark comedy about a disfunctional midwestern family. I read it because my community theater group is doing a workshop on it. I did secure the role of Karen, which is exciting. The characters are complex and the dynamics are psychologically compelling. This is a good play, for those interested in reading good scripts or for directors and theater groups to consider for production.

Customer Rating: 

A very disappointing book, only because it is written as dialogue for a stage performance, rather than in a novel form. Regretable only because the play was, according to people who saw it, a magnificent and powerful production.

Customer Rating: 

Well written. Touches on many issues of the dysfunctional American family. 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.

Customer Rating: 

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. 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, etc. 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.)