A 2008 Pulitzer winning play, August: Osage County by the playwright Tracy Letts was performed by The Primetime Theatre Company at Chowdiah Memorial Hall on October 21 and 22.
The play directed by Lillete Dubey revolves around The Weston family who has a penchant for driving others crazy.
They are brought together when their patriarch goes missing only to be discovered dead days later. The director who is also playing the lead role has made sure the Indian audience can relate to the play. “We have not adapted the play, instead bought rights for the Indian shows. The play is set in Goa and the characters have Indian Catholic names, so that people can very much relate to these characters,” said Lillete Dubey. The story addresses the universal theme of family and the various layers of emotions that define the existing relationships. The show first performed by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago has won seven Tony awards, along with the Pulitzer for drama.
Speaking about the show to City Express, director Lillete Dubey said, “Being associated with the theatre industry for more than thirty years and donning many hats at a time, my experience tells me that audiences engage with subjects to which they can relate to. This play is one such story that typifies families in the modern day world.” She feels that Bangalore has seen a theatrical culture over many decades and most of the population is now English literate. “Bangaloreans are cultural literates. I have read about the theatre scene here and I admire the sense of art appreciation that people here possess. When the character of the mother in the play talks about issues with drugs and alcohol to her daughter, the audience today can relate to it because they too face such situations. They are educated about all kinds of contemporary issues,” she explained. She further added, “Hope the strong theatre tradition here helps me to my advantage. I have had full houses most of the times.”
She expressed that it was difficult to bring a cast of eleven prominent actors in one place, for the show. “I was doing a lot of juggling acts. We rehearsed the play in three weeks. The actors fell into their roles very quickly. But since all of them are brilliant actors and due to their prior commitments, it was hard to make rehearsal schedules where everybody could be together.”
Lillete expresses the importance of her role by saying that theatre has given her that platform that the film industry could not give. “All actresses who have played the role of Violet (the lead character) are famous and are of my age group. So, it is an honour to play such a beautiful role. Nobody in the Hindi film industry could come up with such a brilliant script or such a role. Actresses would give anything to play this character” she asserted. The script is being made into a film which will star Meryl Streep in the main role and Julia Roberts who will play Barbara Fordham. The character of Barbara will be played by Sandhya Mridul in the Indian context.
The play features Indian actors like Sandhya Mridul, Kitu Gidwani, Meeta Vashist, Amar Talwar, Suchitra Pillai, Ira Dubey and Denzil Smith. Lillete calls the multi cast — a great ensemble on stage.
August: Osage County has had thirteen Indian shows and has already been showcased at Delhi. It will also be put up in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Kolkata.