August: Osage County: Riveting madness takes center stage

MANILA, Philippines - Of all the new 'classics' that emerged from American theater over the past decade, Tracy Letts' expansive tragi-comedy 'August: Osage County' is arguably the most daunting to adapt. From its initial run in 2007, it has received massive acclaim, culminating in an impressive sweep at the Tony Awards (including a win for Best Play), and winning for Letts the Pulitzer Prize for Drama the following year. 

 

To add even more weight, a film adaptation opened on cinemas late last year, featuring Academy Award nominated performances from Hollywood heavyweights Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. So when Repertory Philippines set out to stage 'August' for its 77th season this year, they sure as heck had their work cut out for them. 

 

To take on this challenge, Rep went with the strongest weapon in its arsenal--it assembled a team with more than enough talent to do the rich material justice. In scene after gripping scene of this sweeping story, it becomes more and more obvious that everyone involved—from director Chris Millado to his excellent ensemble players to the people who crafted the stage, everyone—is in love with it. They're simply happy to be there. 

 

Incidentally, this intense, foul-mouthed and emotionally destructive play is anything but happy. It takes us to the home of a seemingly nondescript Oklahoma family, The Westons. The partiarch, Beverly (played by Leo Rialp), is an embittered alcoholic who used to be a big-deal poet. His wife, Violet (Baby Barredo), is a cancer-ridden, drug-addled crone who runs on pills and her venomous tongue (fittingly, she has mouth cancer). When Beverly disappears and is subsequently found to have committed suicide, their three grown daughters and other relatives return home for the funeral and to set things in order. What follows is a thoroughly gut-wrenching unraveling of the family fueled by bottled up bitterness and old resentments, and ultimately exploding in a shower of terrible revelations and general mayhem. 

 

There is as much to be said about a masterpiece of this scope as there is about the players that breathe life into it. The biggest strength of this production is the sheer force of its ensemble cast. Delivering richly layered and finely nuanced performances, the actors made sure that as with the goriest of train wrecks, one simply cannot look away. 

 

Legendary performer Baby Barredo is the heart and soul of the play, which is ironic as her character is both heartless and soulless. She attacks the role of “worst person ever” Vivian with such unflinching savagery that her malice fills the theater up to the very back rows even when she isn't onstage. 

 

 

Pinky Amador, Tami Monsod and Liesl Batucan—who play Vivian's daughters—all proved worthy sparring partners for Barredo. Amador's taut performance as tightly-wound eldest daughter Barbara, in particular, proves why she is one of the most enduring actors not just in theater but also in film and TV. From when she first walks onstage, her under-the-skin rage is so palpable that when she finally, inevitably explodes, it is a release shared by the whole audience. 

 

Sheila Francisco also shines as Vivian's sister Mattie Faye, who has a mean streak nearly just as wide as hers.

 

In its three acts and an over three-hour run, “August: Osage County” managed to paint a portrait of a family that is so unhappy, so ugly. The issues on full display here are, in a phrase, royally messed up. It is a veritable salad of alcoholism and adultery sprinkled lightly with a bit of latent racism and just plain old meanness. The whole sordid affair could easily have ended up as a total bummer if not for the stinging dark humor running through its twisted veins. The blisteringly snarky and witty dialogue, the complex characterizations, and the deliciously wicked take no prisoners display of emotional combat make an astonishingly entertaining end product. 

 

August: Osage County of Repertory Philippines has Friday and Saturday shows at 8:00pm and matinee shows on Saturday and Sunday at 3:30pm until March 16, 2014 at Onstage, Greenbelt 1, Makati City.