PONCA CITY, OK - Oklahoma Pride Series 2018 - Ponca Playhouse, Ponca City Oklahoma
July 19-21 & 26-28 at 7:30 pm & July 22 & 29 at 2:00 pm. Directed by Lance Garrett. Tickets:$20 at www.poncaplayhouse.com.
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This play is not like the 2013 movie of the same name. With fully developed characters from the original play script, this live performance is like taking a peak into a totally mixed-up, messed-up family reunion; and then settling in with popcorn and sodas for the all the juicy aftermath. Think soap opera in the round with no sensors to bleep out the profanity.
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The Weston family patriarch lays out his family’s arrangement pretty clearly in the first scene of “August: Osage County,” Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer-winning tale of a simmering clan that emphasizes the “dys” in “dysfunctional.”
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“My wife takes pills, and I drink; that’s the bargain we struck,” says Beverly Weston to Johnna Monevata, the home health aide he interviews at the beginning of this story to help his wife, Violet, who has cancer.
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Just why Violet takes pills and he drinks reveals itself slowly over the next 3 hours in this compressed epic fraught with jealousy, guilt, addiction, fury, adultery and long-buried secrets. When the audience disperses after the show, you just might hear someone say, “Thanksgiving at my in-laws’ doesn’t look that bad now.”
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And that is just the Mother and Father of this broken clan. As the play rolls on, layers of wrathful daughters, fragile sons and angry spouses round out the family portrait. Throw in an apparent suicide and watch the flames fan higher and burn oh so much brighter.
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August: Osage County” is a play that definitely picks at scabs; and since the healing is going so well, goes back in and inflicts new wounds. But this play will also leave you thinking about truth, lies and love. Oh, and you will definitely feel a lot better about getting together with your family at the holidays and for reunions.
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Auditions for this Ponca Playhouse fundraiser show are Tuesday and Wednesday, May 29 and 30 at the Ponca Playhouse, 301 S. 1st Street Ponca City, OK. Call for more information at 580-765-5360.
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Ponca Playhouse Presents August Osage County
