August Osage County

Last Friday evening I went to see the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, August Osage County.

The play is set in modern-day Oklahoma. Despite this, the audience is first greeted by a set that is more reminiscent of a previous era when houses were built of weatherboard and contained grand, timber staircases and 'libraries' rather than 'offices'. The charming - though dilapidated - house looked like, according to one of my companions on the evening, a child's doll house.

Living in the house was the alcoholic Beverly Weston - a former poet and professor at Tulsa University - and his pill-poppin' wife, Violet. The play opens with Beverly talking with (or, rather, to) a young Native Indian girl who he is about to hire as a house-maid. Through this conversation we learn that all is not well in this particular home in Osage County. Indeed, this is the last we will see of Beverly.

His death brings his three daughters and sister-in-law back to the family house to be with Violet and to attend the funeral. Two of the daughters have moved away from Oklahoma with their partners. The other daughter has stayed and consequently suffers from small-town suffocation, the burden of being the only daughter still near her parents and the embarrassment of not having 'made it' somewhere else. Not only that, but she is in her forties and has not found a life partner.

The family has not been close geographically, nor emotionally. It is this tension that provides the context for the ensuing family drama. A tight and funny script explores the characters' angst that has been simmering just below the surface.

The first two acts introduces the audience to the problems and paranoia that each of the characters is plagued by. The drug-induced, uninhibited verbal assault from Violet during a family dinner makes for an awkward meal. When challenged as to why she is being so 'mean', Violet suggests that she is 'merely telling the truth'. The result is a moment of group-catharsis complete with yelling, name-calling and violence to finish the second act.

This sets up the final act which becomes a series of conversations and confrontations which are an exercise in truth-telling. Of course, the question then becomes one of whose truth is being told? Indeed, we must consider one of the key philosophical questions: what is truth? As sisters confide in each other, husbands tell wives why they have no future and aunts reveal forty year-old secrets, it becomes apparent that it is, perhaps, more correct to say that Violet initiated the unfurling of honest divulgences.

The reality is that honesty brings much hurt, but also provides each character the opportunity to confront what has been spoken of them and to deal with it. At times these honest appraisals seem to be insights that perform a liberating function. Other times, however, the 'truth' of the appraisals is more ambiguous and, thus, may be damaging rather than liberating.

We often tell our children that it is always best to be honest. There is the crude phrase, often spoken as an axiom: honesty is the best policy. Yet August Osage County causes us to rethink this. We are forced to consider the difference between honesty and truth. Jesus in the New Testament declares that 'the truth will set you free'. It is a comment that seems to assume that truth obtains an objective quality. However, it seems to me that while honesty may be linked with the Truth, it is not necessary. Rather, honesty can be simply based on a truth. That is, it may be true that someone has offended me and I can be honest about the fact that I feel offended. Yet what has been said or done to offend me and how I articulate this may have no basis in Truth.

So, while the Truth may set us free, perhaps honesty may not always set us free. If we are honest without any discernment, then it may actually be a selfish act. Certainly, August Osage County illustrates how being honest can both liberate and bind. The complexity of human relationships is explored in a way that invites the viewer to read the play through the lens of their own family dynamics.

Running for almost 4 hours, there is potential for the emotional nature of the play to create too great a burden for the audience to endure, yet the script provides the moments of comedic relief necessary to keep the viewers engaged. Furthermore, the performances by each of the cast members - but especially Robyn Nevin as Violet - are wonderfully balanced.

The show is only being staged by the MTC until July 4, so if you are in Melbourne, you'll need to get in quick if you to enjoy this epic, modern-day gem.