<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>328242</docID> <postdate>2024-09-03 11:21:00</postdate> <headline>Home-truths come out in bitter-sweet tragi-comedy.</headline> <body><p><img class="wp-image-328244 size-full" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/AOC-67.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p> <caption>August: Osage County boasts an exceptionally large cast for a contemporary play. Photo: Jane Duong</caption> <p><strong>Tracy Letts’ Tony and Pulitzer-winning play August: Osage County is one of the great theatrical warhorses of our time. </strong></p> <p>Playing at the ACTHub this month, the play is set in regional Oklahoma and boasts an exceptionally large cast for a contemporary play, most of them members of the Weston family summoned by matriarch Violet (Karen Vickery) after their booze-ridden poet father, Beverly, goes missing.</p> <p>It also has more than the usual number of acts by today’s standards – three – and a plot in which more than the usual number of home-truths come out in what has been billed as a bitter-sweet, black or tragi-comedy.</p> <p>Essentially a piece about a mid-western white American family, it does include the indigenous housekeeper, Johanna, a kind of witness.</p> <p>Originally staged at Chicago’s famous Steppenwolf Theatre in 2007, it quickly transferred to Broadway, where it enjoyed an exceptional two-year run.</p> <p>It’s a favourite for Vickery, who gets some of Letts’ most excoriating lines, and a favourite for veteran Canberra actor David Bennett, who is a real Oklahoman.</p> <p>I catch up with Louise Bennet (no relation), who is here to play the most dominant of the Weston daughters, Barbara Fordham.</p> <p><img class="wp-image-328245 " src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/AOC-54.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="500" /></p> <caption>Bruce Hardie and Louise Bennet face off as Bill and Barbara. Photo: Jane Duong</caption> <p>Raised in Canberra, she cut her theatrical teeth starting out with Amadeus, also playing Ophelia for the late Stephen Pike in his production of Hamlet at Theatre 3.</p> <p>She then auditioned for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London to study Shakespeare in 2007, moving to Melbourne on her return, where she works as a freelance advocacy campaigner.</p> <p>Back in Canberra by special invitation of Free-Rain director Anne Somes, Bennet tells me she was enticed back to the theatre after a visit last year to London and the National Theatre.</p> <p>“It was so exciting,†she says, “It made me hungry and my friend whose wife is an actress said, 'you've got to come back to the theatre'.â€</p> <p>“I wanted to dip my toes in something nice but small, but then Anne offered me Barbara, which is huge.â€</p> <p>“I had seen Osage County on Broadway in 2007. It's a magnificent play and the film wasn't a patch on it… I play the eldest daughter.â€</p> <p>Barbara is a nuanced role, Bennet reports, but she has good support in Bruce Hardie, who’s moved here from Melbourne recently. He plays Barbara's husband Bill Fordham.</p> <p>“There is much going on. All along, hidden secrets bubble up and truths are revealed in this enormous play,†she says.</p> <p>“It's quite exciting stuff… you get to smash things and there's a lot going on between daughter, husband, sister, mother, father – it's pretty exciting.</p> <p>“Osage County has a big cast with big dialogue. We are all captivated with the beauty of Tracy Letts’ writing.</p> <p>“Sure. It’s three acts, but the play rips along with twists and turns so that you never get bored."</p> <p><em>August: Osage County, ACTHub, Kingston, September 5-15.</em></p> </body>