Thursday, April 08, 2010
'August: Osage County' offers pathos and profanity
Post Gazette: "Superlatives from critics, a long Broadway run and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama can't disguise the fact that 'August: Osage County' is a 31/2-hour soap-opera parody -- just funnier and more hip."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
I am shocked at the review of this play. How can this award winning play be as crude and worthless as this critic seems to think it is? Perhaps since most audiences nowadays are above forty, they are not prone to having theater being portrayed in such an upfront way, and so found it too much like a soap opera with vulgar language.
Not having seen the play yet, I am interested to see whether the comments made in this article holds true, especially since most of the reviews and thoughts I have heard are positive.
Supposedly, I personally have never seen nor read it, 'God of Carnage' is an awful play. However it's success has everything to do with an all-star cast. Then again, 'August: Osage County' doesn't necessarily have an all-star cast. Considering I'm about to actually go see the play, and having heard a great deal of acclaim about it, I'm going to caulk this up to one person's opinion.
I would like to think that the world is finally trying to do plays that are "so bad they are good," but I don't think that this is the case. The play seems to just contain everything bad about soap operas, which while probably making it at least interesting to watch, doesn't necessarily make it a good play. The idea that just because the original material won awards, does not necessarily mean that it will be well received by the local community that may not know or care about what the critics and award givers thought made it an incredible play.
The thing that this article misrepresents is how real the dialogue and story is. Sure we all arent haveing sex with our sibilings but we can relate to those feelings of anger and trouble and frustration with our family. And it is this ability to recognize these emotions when dealing with family that makes it great. The other thing is yes it is soap-opera like but it is real. The dialogue is one that it is how people honestly talk. After my father saw this he hated it. "why would I pay to see a fight me and your mother had, onstage?" He couldnt see the point behind it but that is the point itself. It was so real he could identify with it.
Having just seen the play yesterday, I can agree with this critic that parts of the play are definitely crude and cruel. Unlike the critic, however, I think that most of the purpose of the play is centered around this fact, and that the crudeness and cruelty are justified by this. The Weston family's complete dysfunctionality is made so much more apparent by these aspects.
Yes, although the show may represent reality for many people it handles the material in a crude manner. Many do find the material hilarious and beautiful, but I have heard opinions from people I greatly respect about the show being completely skewed.
Seeing characters in pill-induced fogs and drinking themselves into stupors, isn't something I enjoy seeing onstage. Nor do I enjoy material surrounding incest and pedophilia. From personal experiences, life like that is not funny, is not hilarious. Being in a room where people are laughing at situations like this would not open me up to the material, but turn me against the show and the audience as a whole. Then again, if I were to see the show, I might enjoy it, but I don't think I would be able to go in with an open mind.
Post a Comment