Currently playing at the Heath Ledger Theatre as a part of Perth Festival, August: Osage County is a gothic, tragic look at life on the great plains in America’s west. Taking place entirely in the lounge room of the Westons, it looks at generational trauma and the effect remote, desolate life has on a person and society.
Sporting a large cast of 13, this 3.5-hour behemoth of a show sorts itself into three acts. Without giving too much away, this large family finds itself at a point of separation and angst as it deals with a sudden change in the dynamics of everything. This cast is absolutely sensational, honestly some of the best performances I have seen in Perth, ever. Every member absolutely nails the full range of anger, grief, and complete mental breakdowns. Pamela Rabe as Violet, the matriarch of the family, and Hayley McElhinney as Barbara, the oldest of Violet’s three daughters, are just perfect. The energy and life they give these characters are extraordinary and a marvel to behold.
August: Osage County. Hayley McElhinney, Pamela Rabe. Photography by Philip Gostelow.
I am unsure if the set is something brought over from Belvoir, but it falls into the same trap I have seen a number of sets on the Heath Ledger stage fall into. It’s more or less just a black box stage inside a giant proscenium. Some interest was brought out in the fragmentation of the blocks of the walls in the set, but interesting in the same way basic literary techniques are better than nothing. Lighting and costume were fairly naturalistic but worked well to heighten the intensity of what was already happening on stage.
So this script, written in 2006, has not aged well as a late Bush-era critique of American culture or society. For most of the show, we more or less just see a family in decline. Trauma after trauma, reveal after reveal, plot twist after plot twist, it all felt very forced and contrived. To end on a monologue talking about the decline of American society as some great metaphor just fell so flat. I feel even for its time, the script offers a vague white neoliberal perspective of society and how it’s declining.
August: Osage County. Pamela Rabe, Amy Mathews, Bert Labonte, Hayley McElhinney, Caroline Brazier. Photography by Philip Gostelow.
The humour really encapsulates the feeling I have about this show. It mostly revolves around just throwing out swear words or something vulgar for shock laughter or just classic boomer “I hate my spouse” jokes. Shallow and relatively meaningless, much like the political commentary this show attempts to make, just pointing at the world around and saying, “Wow, isn’t this crazy.” I just don’t think we have space for this show anymore. Speaking as a young artist, I love to see the enthusiasm audiences seem to have for theatre, but it just feels all so aimless when directed at something that doesn’t really say anything. It is a fairly similar feeling I had to a number of shows Black Swan had last year, including The Children. I blame Aaron Sorkin and The West Wing for all of this.
August: Osage County is on from February 27 to March 16 at The Heath Ledger Theatre.