PUHI — The air inside the Puhi Theatrical Warehouse is stifling. The sparse warehouse has been transformed into an unforgiving Oklahoma landscape during the heat of summer for Kaua‘i Community Players’ production of “August: Osage County.” While this three-act play
PUHI — The air inside the Puhi Theatrical Warehouse is stifling. The sparse warehouse has been transformed into an unforgiving Oklahoma landscape during the heat of summer for Kaua‘i Community Players’ production of “August: Osage County.”
While this three-act play reads like a Greek tragedy — alcoholism, drug addiction, adultery, cancer and pedaphilia take center stage — this tale of anguish will have audiences snickering in their seats.
Written by Tracy Lett, this black comedy garnered a Pulitzer Prize, Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Critics award in 2008. Director Arnold Meister leads a 13-member cast in a staged reading of “August,” which opens 7 p.m. today for a two week run.
The play centers around the Weston family, who have a knack for making each other miserable. When Beverly Weston (Greg Nickerson), an alcoholic and failed poet, disappears into the plains of Oklahoma on a hot August night, the family gathers to comfort the pill-popping, acid-spewing matriarch of the house, Violet Weston (Laurel Petterson-McGraw).
Eldest daughter Barbara Fordham (Faith Harding) and her two sisters flock to the Oklahoma homestead bringing their families and emotional baggage in tow. Lonely middle daughter Ivy Weston (Mary MacDermott) is counting the days before she makes her escape to New York City, and youngest daughter Karen Weston (Jennifer Downs) is planning her happily ever after with fiancé and first-class pervert Steve Heidebrecht (Dennis McGraw).
Bill Fordham (Morgan Liddell) is an academic scholar whose affair with a college student isn’t lost on his 14-year-old, sass-mouth daughter Jean (played by a mature 13-year-old Emily Threlkeld).
Violet’s sister Mattie Fae Aiken (Elizabeth Hahn) and her pot-smoking husband Charlie Aiken (Fredan Alfonso) are uproarious to watch as they constantly peck at each other, and it’s hard not to crack a smile when Charlie tears into Mattie Fae over their son “Little” Charles (Jason Blake). Johnna Monevata (Delia Valentin) is the family’s live-in housekeeper who silently watches the mayhem of the house unfold, and Sheriff Deon Gilbeau (Judah Freed) rounds out the cast.
It takes a highly functional cast of characters to portray a dysfunctional family, and director Arnold Meister and his ensemble won’t fail to rouse audiences.
The strength of the material makes for captivating theater. The scripts in the actors’ hands seemingly melt away during this staged reading as the Weston family spirals deeper into their own inferno.
Even though there were a few potential stumbling blocks in the production — the cast were given two weeks to rehearse, set designers were challenged to recreate a three-story country home and Meister needed to find a teenage actress able to hold her own amidst an adult cast and mature subject matter — KCP pulled together and delivers a wildly entertaining story, making “August” the shortest three hours you will have in a theater.
Plus, the play puts Eric Clapton’s music to excellent use.
Performances are Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m. The show closes Feb. 5.
Want to go?
What: “August: Osage County”
When: Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m. Through Feb. 5.
Where: Puhi Theatrical Warehouse, 4411 E. Kikowaena St., Lihu‘e.
Cost: $15 in advance and $17 at the door.
• Andrea Frainier, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-3681, ext. 257 or afrainier@ thegardenisland.com.
