Excellent performances bring out the best in a problematic script
Rating: 4
August: Osage County
Kansas City Repertory Theatre
Dark comedy is something of a delicate balancing act. Go too far with the comedy, the darkness is lost. Over-emphasize the darkness, and the comedy disappears or, worse yet, falls into the realm of camp. In the Kansas City Repertory company's production of "August: Osage County," the story spends a lot of time skirting the line and the rest of the time crossing right over.
The story, on its face, is a simple one. Family patriarch Beverly Weston (Kip Niven) has disappeared, leaving behind his wife Violet (Merle Moores) and housekeeper (Vanessa Severo). To the rescue comes Violet's sister Mattie (Kathleen Warfel) and the family's three daughters: eldest sister Barbara (Cheryl Weaver), middle child Ivy (Manon Halliburton), and youngest daughter Karen (Jennifer Mays), along with their various families, issues, and secrets in tow. As the fallout of the family patriarch's disappearance unwinds throughout the next few days, a lifetime worth of secrets, lies, and emotional baggage come spiraling out in all directions. Of course, in such a storyline, the devil is in the details, and in this case, the details are particularly devilish indeed.
As the story proceeds through its three acts, we are dragged along through every manner of depravity and ugliness one could care to name. The Weston household seems to exist in that strange netherworld from which come the people we see on daytime talk shows and reality shows. Infidelity, drug use, suicide, and incest all rear their heads early on, and as the play goes on things just get worse and worse. And here is the chief issue: as the Weston family plunges from crisis to crisis, at times it feels like this is nothing more than a race to the bottom. Indeed, there are a few plot point where it feels like the author decided that a certain situation, while certainly horrible, just wasn't quite awful enough. At that point, we cross over the line from the ambitious to the gratuitous.
With a script like this, it takes an enormously skilled ensemble to pull it off. Fortunately, the Rep assembled some of the best local talent available for this one. Almost the entire cast are professionals, and it certainly shows. Particularly worthy of note is Kip Niven, whose Beverly we only see once, at the very beginning, but whose performance is so strong that his presence is felt throughout the rest of the show. He is the tired remains of a broken-down warrior-poet; he drawls through whisky and T. S. Eliot, raging grimly against the dark and what might have been. Cheryl Weaver hits all the right notes as the eldest daughter, slowly melding into an ersatz matriarch when her own mother weakens. The rest of the cast do splendid work, and even through the most histrionic of scenes, we are nevertheless treated to some fine ensemble acting.
The KC Rep has established itself as being bold and daring in its stagings, and this production does not disappoint. Donald Eastman has designed a remarkable set, here: a giant doll's house, aged and patched and heavy with guilty secrets. One can almost smell the mildew and desperation. Lighting effects are used sparingly but effectively, and in general the technical aspects of the production are cleanly and professionally done.
Ultimately, the story is the weakest link. It runs for three solid hours, and not a moment that the Gordian knot of the plot doesn't become more tangled in on itself. By the time the ending came around, the audience--who had thus far followed the plot with all its gasps and shudders--began to grow restive, and detached. Indeed, as the story wound down, it seemed several times we were coming to the end, only for another bit to come along. It was almost as if the author had several ideas for endings and, unable to decide which one to use, opted to go with all of them. When the final ending does indeed come, the mood of the last three hours is shifted in an odd, unexpected way. Of course, it is the job of the end to guide us from the world of the play back into our own, but generally not in quite so jarring a manner.
In the end, this is an impressive piece of work. A group of highly talented local professionals have come together to tackle a particularly difficult and problematic story, and for the most part pull it off. That they do so is a testament to the talent on display both onstage and off. One can only hope we will soon get the opportunity to see these same people in material that is less adversarial to those who try to tackle it, both on the stage and in the audience.
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