Review: 'August: Osage County' by Two Planks Theater Company

“Life is very long.’ - T.S. Eliot

Monroe, CT - Two Planks Theatre Company chose ‘August: Osage County’ to kick off their 2017-2018 season, a comedy-drama that is definitely heavy on the drama written by Tracy Letts. The outstanding Two Planks cast was ably directed by founding director David Halliwell and artistic director Susan Halliwell and executive director Brooke Burling served as producers.

This winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best New Play is the story of a family with a LOT of issues. The Weston family is brought together after the patriarch, a world-class poet/alcoholic, disappears. His wife Violet, a depressed pill addict, is joined by her three daughters and their lovers with issues of their own, in the ruthless heat of the family estate in Osage County, Oklahoma. Violet’s sister Mattie Fae and her family also arrive to help dispense the cruelty that is the hallmark of this family. Finally there is the observer of all of the chaos, a young Cheyenne housekeeper Johnna, who was hired by Beverly before his disappearance.

Tensions heated up and boiled over throughout the three acts, but there was also some intelligent humor to break it up. The intensity of the viciousness is what I will long remember, as well as the length of the life of this play, which ran three full hours with two 15 minute intermissions.

The cast of these damaged characters were brought to life by a cadre of talented community theatre actors; not one could be considered the weak link. John Lino Ponzini (‘La Cage Aux Folles’) began the first act as the patriarch Beverly and made his mark, despite not returning to the stage until curtain call. Jean Budney (Two Planks’ ‘Blithe Spirit’) did amazing work with the demanding role of the pill-addicted matriarch, still smoking despite her mouth cancer; she was totally believable in every move.

Monroe resident Gillian Bailey (the ghost in ‘Blithe Spirit’) gave an impressive performance as the strong daughter Barbara Fordham and George Kulp (‘Blithe Spirit’) was just as strong as her husband Bill. Cassie Gerace, a Masuk HS senior, did a great job in the role of the teenaged daughter Jean. Jacqueline MacLean (‘Gypsy’) played the dutiful and unmarried daughter Ivy and Susan Kulp (‘Blithe Spirit,’ Tanya in ‘Mamma Mia’ by Landmark) played the fashionable daughter Karen.

Geoffrey Michael Corbis played the role of Karen’s betrothed with lots of icky secrets. Sheila Duckworth, making her theatrical debut, was strong in the role of Mattie Fae, and Charles Merlis stood up to her in the role of her husband Charlie. Robert Thomas Halliwell was memorable in the role of the son they raised as “Little Charles.” Carolyn Savola (‘Gypsy,’ ‘Footloose’ and ‘Hairspray’ at Musicals at Richter) was a lovely quiet presence in the role of the Cheyenne housekeeper and A.M. Bratt returned to this stage to play the county sheriff.

Lighting designed by Rob Primorac was fine and the original music by David Singer worked well. The intentionally cluttered set was probably the best one I have seen at the indoor venue of his company, the sanctuary of a Monroe church space transformed into a performance space. There was an entrance into the home for outdoor scenes, the main level of the house and two upstairs levels. They all fit together on this relatively small space and somehow made the stage area look bigger than usual. There were a couple of set malfunctions at the performance I attended that I don’t think were planned. Kudos to Mr. Burling on his ingenious set design and to Barbara Fahr on authentic props, although one large stack of books on the top of the hi-fi blocked much of the performance of one actor from my vantage point. The family dinner held around a round table and at a smaller “kids table” also blocked out the performances of most of the actors for me; luckily audience members could see Violet seated at the far end of the main table. The carefully chosen costumes by Susan Russell also added to the strong look of this piece.

‘August: Osage County’ continues through October 28 at 515 Cutlers Farm Road in Monroe.