To answer the question that I’ve been dying to know since the play first premiered: The title of August: Osage County refers to setting of the play, the way a screenwriter or playwright would set the scene at the top of a script…hence 'August: Osage County.'

Quick History: The show, after an incredibly successful run at Steppenwolf, went on to Broadway, won 7 Tony awards, including  Best Play, Best Actress, Best Featured Actress, and Best Director, AND won playwright Tracy Letts the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Not to shabby.

Fast forward to February: Cook County. As part of the Broadway in Chicago lineup, the show returns to its Chicago roots for a limited run at the Cadillac Palace.

I, having not seen the play in 2007, had a vague notion that the play is a family drama, but didn’t know what else to expect. Let’s just say I left the theater feeling like I had been hit repeatedly with a ton of bricks – but thoroughly enjoyed it along the way. Although the works of Arthur Miller and even Chekov come to mind in comparison, the psychological damage inflicted on the characters and absolute decimation of the family structure makes Miller and Chekov look like Disney. What starts out as a typical family drama evolves into a long examination of what it means to be a husband, wife, mother, father, sister, cousin, uncle, daughter – in thorough and oftentimes humorous detail that makes the play feel much shorter than its 3-and-a-half-hours. (Seriously, don't be intimidated - I was very much surprised at how quickly the hours went by). 

What’s scary about the play, however, and why it leaves audiences so deeply affected (I heard one attendee say 'It was an excellent show, but I’m in too much shock to process it right now'), is that this could easily be any family, anywhere in America. There are no defining characteristics or a Big Historical Family Event that sets the play in motion. Rather, the downfall of the family is the result of decades of dysfunction, a slow poison that isn’t obvious on the surface and, even in the end, catches the family by surprise and ruins them in painful bursts.

Like Chekov and Miller, great playwrights need great actors. While it goes without saying that the entire cast is made up of Broadway pros, it is the performances of Estelle Parsons as matriarch Violet, and Shannon Cochran as her daughter Barbara, that truly make the play. They’ve got big shoes to fill, especially in Chicago considering the original cast was comprised of our hometown favorites, and in my view, they did an excellent job. 

For theatre fans, this will be one that goes down in the history books as a classic, and though it will be revived often, I recommend catching it now when it still has the excitement and energy of a masterpiece in the making.