4/18/11
Theatre 2040

August: Osage County Critique

I felt that the play over all was well put together. The play takes one extremely dysfunctional family, and uses it to illustrate a plethora of things that can go wrong within a family. The play is filled with dark humor, and has a feel to match. The play starts out with Beverly in his study rambling on about philosophy to a new live in maid he has hired to look after the house. As he rambles his wife, Violet, wakes up, barred out on pills, stumbles downstairs and insults the new house hand. This is just the beginning of the many insults and sarcastic remarks that Violet will plague the stage with. After this scene closes Beverly in no longer on the stage and it soon become apparent that Beverly is missing. Beverly’s boat is also missing. His daughters come back home as does Violet’s sister Mattie. As the scene progresses some of the problems the different parts of the family have begun to surface. It is revealed that Barbra and bill are separated due to Bill’s affairs with Celia, one of his students. There is also a scene where it is revealed that Jean has taken to smoking pot. At the end of the scene sheriff Deon who, Barbra, dated in high school informs the family that Beverly’s body had been found in a lake. Barbra as a blood relative has to identify the body. All of the family realizes that Beverly’s death was more than likely suicide. The second act has the family coming back from the funeral to a formal dinner. Little Charles Mattie’s son missed the funeral because he never set his alarm. Upon little Charles arrival, the relationship between Ivy and him surfaces. Little Charles and Ivy are cousins. The dinner tense to begin with starts out with Charlie saying a prayer, which nobody really pays attention to. Jean won’t eat meat because she is a vegetarian. Charlie cannot understand this. The