In the land of sunshine, smiles and thunderous afternoon showers, summer theater need not be relegated to summer camp children’s productions, but can pose deep, thought-provoking works that push on bold and difficult themes. Part of Florida Atlantic University’s Department of Theatre and Dance’s Festival Rep 2014, the production of August: Osage County, the 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning play for drama, confronts the audience with aging, suicide, substance abuse, fractured family relationships, and mental instability, all in the first act.
The play, running from June 27 to July 26, is set in modern day middle class Oklahoma, and revolves around the Weston family and matriarch Violet. Her husband, Beverly, turns up missing, resulting in their daughters returning to their childhood home. Confrontation looms as old wounds are picked afresh by their drug-addled mother, creating a contentious environment that spills over with the news of their father’s apparent suicide. As tensions mount, interpersonal conflicts boil over, tearing the family asunder, leaving Violet alone in the wreckage of her life.
Written by Tracey Letts, the dark, and I mean dark, “dramedy” was adapted for film (also under the pen of Letts) with an all-star cast and nominated for multiple awards, including Academy Awards, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards for Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. FAU is bringing its production of this dysfunctional family to stage as part of Festival Rep 2014, the Department of Theatre and Dance’s twenty-eighth annual summer theater series featuring students, faculty and guest professional equity artists.
- August: Osage County will run through July 26 at the Studio One blackbox theater.
- For the complete performance schedule, click here.
- Tickets cost $20.
- For more information and to purchase tickets, visit fau.edu.
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