FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2011 THE VANCOUVER COURIER
Photo By: Ilja Herb/www.iljaherb.com
theatre
EW29
FEBRUARY 11-19/2011 604.984.4484 INFO@VIMFF.ORG/WWW.VIMFF.ORG
American playwright Tracy Letts serves up addiction, infidelity, suicide, incest, racial intolerance, greed and molestation in the three-hour-long Arts Club production of August: Osage County.
Heated August brings family to a boil August: Osage County
At the Stanley until Feb. 27 Tickets: 604.687.1644 artsclub.com
Reviewed by Jo Ledingham
Guarantee: your own family will seem like one big, happy family after seeing this Arts Club production. In the course of three hours, American playwright Tracy Letts gives us addiction, infidelity, suicide, incest, racial intolerance, greed and the groping of a 14-year-old—all served up à la Neil Simon. The fact that August: Osage County won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play says a lot about American taste and nostal-
gia for the truly great American plays of the past. Letts conflates Martha from Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Mary Tyrone from Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night and puts the resulting character, Violet Weston, into a Tennessee Williams’ month-of-August pressure cooker. And what a piece of work is Violet with her wild swings from razor-sharp verbal flaying to whimpering, poor-me, snivelling. Under Janet Wright’s direction, actor Nora McLellan not only rides this emotional rollercoaster, she runs it. When Violet, sucking on a cigarette or popping tranquilizers by the handful, scans the family living room for someone—anyone—to trash, McLellan is downright hawk-eyed. Continued next page
Experience At your neighbourhood theatre
Upcoming PERFORMANCES ADAMS'S NIXON IN CHINA
February 12, 10:00 am
GLUCK'S IPHIGENIE EN TAURIDE February 26, 10:00 am
DONIZETTI'S LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR March 19, 10:00 am
SPECIAL ADMISSION PRICE General $20.00 Seniors, Students, Members $17.00 Children $10.00
PARK THEATRE 3440 Cambie • 604.709.3456 www.festivalcinemas.ca
KUDOS & KVETCHES DAILY: the blog
Because you shouldn’t have to wait twice a week to be
offended
vancourier.com