Theater Night Out 4: August at Dimitris Horn Theater

Having great first materials doesn’t always mean you will make a great dish. And I am talking last night’s play that I saw in one of the most historic Theaters of Athens. The critics raved and we had all the pieces in place. But more on that later.

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About

August: Osage County is a comedy-drama play by Tracy Letts. It took the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play premiered at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago on June 28 2007, and closed on August 26, 2007. It had its Broadway debut at the Imperial Theater on December 4, 2007, and the production transferred to the Music Box Theatre on April 29, 2008. The Broadway show closed on June 28, 2009, after 648 performances.

It was turned into a film in 2013 directed by John Wells. The film cast consisting of Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Margo Martindale, Dermot Mulroney and Julianne Nicholson.

It is the first time presented in Greece at Dimitris Horn Theater a venue that has almost 70 years of history.

It was named by one the greatest Greek actors, Dimitris Horn and some of his personal items are exhibited there.

Storyline ( without spoilers )

The story takes place during a hot August inside the three-story home of Beverly and Violet Weston outside Pawhuska, Oklahoma. Beverly Weston is an alcoholic, once-noted poet that commits suicide and his dysfunctional family, which consists of his pill addicted wife Violet and three daughters and few more relatives, is forced to sit at the funeral table.

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During that meal and the day after we see their relationships unfold and their stories unravel. Mother and daughters, their husbands , boyfriends , uncle, aunt, cousin , a grand daughter and a native American house maid make up an interesting story on what can go wrong with a family. It is a study on human psychology, behavior and how people justify their actions.

Cast

This was a change from the two header of previous week as we had a plethora of people on stage. And most of the are well known here in Greece.

Cast: Themis Bazaka, Maria Protopappa, Vicky Volioti , Marina Aslanoglou, Alexandros Mylonas, Manos Vakousis, Maria Katsiadaki, Nickos Alexiou, Thymios Koukios, Kostas Antalopoulos, Aurora Marion.

Theater Dimitris Horn is at Amerikis 10 st.

Dysfunctional Family, Dysfunctional Play

Cannot say anything about the play itself since it got a Pulitzer Price, but I think something went wrong with the translation. Even though the performance was two and half hours some things were left unexplained and some characters weren’t portrayed the way they could have been.

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Performances were adequate to mediocre, except Bazaka that was awesome. Direction was solid, but nothing spectacular.

I went with high expectations and the play didn’t deliver. I would describe it as just good.

Hopefully next week’s play will make it up. We’ll see.

Have you been to a play ?
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Join the fun.

And until the next Theatre Night Out …
Be Healthy, Smile and Steem.

Would you recommend it? – NO

Would you see it again? – NO