August: Osage County

The pen of Tracy Letts has given us an epic drama in this fine play. As performed at Steppenwolf Theater tonight it was a marvelous vehicle for some very good if not great actors. I especially enjoyed seeing Deanna Dunagan as the matriarch, Violet Weston, give a superb performance. There were others of course, notably Dennis Letts and Amy Morton as her husband and eldest daughter. The program notes were very helpful including a family tree to map the various relationships presented over the evening. This is a long play of three acts, but like all good long plays it got better as the evening went on. The suspense built to the very end when all that we heard was a final murmuring reference to T. S. Eliot, echoing the opening moments of the play.