L.A. Theatre Works and NT Live

Family Messes
By Terry Morgan

Rondi Reed, Mariann Mayberry, Robert Maffia and Francis Guinan in LATW’s “August: Osage County” (Photo by Matt Petit)

An Aural August: Osage County

L.A. Theatre Works has been recording audio versions of plays for 40 years. The group gets terrific actors to perform the shows, sometimes securing all or some of the work’s original cast. Many might be familiar with the organization’s efforts through its public radio program, which currently airs locally on KPFK 90.7 on Thursdays from 7-9 p.m. What people may not be aware of is that these play recordings are done live, at UCLA’s James Bridges Theater, in front of an audience. I recently attended one of these recordings, to see several of the original actors from August: Osage County re-create their performances in this modern American classic of familial discord.

I had some preconceptions before I attended the event — that the recording aspect of things might be too technical or that watching actors speak into a microphone could get visually tiresome — but these concerns turned out to be unnecessary. Director Bart DeLorenzo treated the recording as much like a full performance as the situation allows, having the actors change costumes between acts and using pictures of the play’s original set projected on a screen behind the cast. Deanna Dunagan and Rondi Reed reprised their Tony Award-winning roles, along with original Steppenwolf and Broadway cast members Francis Guinan, Mariann Mayberry and Kimberly Guerrero. Film and TV actors Ron Livingston, Rosemarie Dewitt and Robert Pine performed in major roles as well. Original music by David Singer and live sound effects provided by Jeff Gardner added to the ambience.

LATW has an embargo on reviewing the live performances until the actual finished production is released, which I’m honoring. In future columns I intend to review some of their completed recordings, which currently number more than four hundred and are available both on CD as well as for streaming over the Internet at www.latw.org. What I can say is that watching the live recording was an experience more akin to seeing a full production than I expected, and was a far more enjoyable time than watching the oddly tepid film version.

 Alan Ayckbourn’s A Small Family Business

NT Live’s “A Small Family Business” (Photoby Johan Persson)

The most recent offering by National Theatre Live is a superb production of Alan Ayckbourn’s A Small Family Business. Premiered on the same stage in 1987, the play is no less relevant now than it was in the “greed is good” 1980s. Morally righteous Jack McCracken (Nigel Lindsay) has just been put in charge of the family furniture business, giving a speech at a gathering about how they all need to put things back into the company and not take from it. He’s not happy when his party is interrupted by a department store detective named Benedict Hough (Matthew Cottle), who informs him that Jack’s daughter Sammie (Alice Sykes) has been shoplifting. He’s even less happy when Hough blackmails him to keep Sammie from going to jail, and Jack’s wife Poppy (Debra Gillett) convinces him to give in and give Hough a job as head of security to spare Sammie. Things get worse when Jack discovers someone is undermining the business from within, and when he discovers who it is, his entire outlook on life has to change.

Lindsay is sympathetic and amusing as the always-beset Jack, a decent man who discovers the parameters of decency to be wider than he’d imagined. Cottle, wonderfully seedy as the malignant Hough, delivers his threats with wheedling decorum as he daintily pats his greasy hair. Gillett, quietly terrific as Jack’s loving wife Poppy, realizes that no one can live up to Jack’s standards. Niky Wardley vies with Cottle to steal the show as the eminently practical Anita, whose parade of illicit lovers she barely tries to conceal, and Amy Marston’s memorably distraught Harriet has decided that eating food is disgusting and she’s going to stop altogether.

Adam Penford’s staging keeps the large cast moving in and out of Tim Hatley’s two-story house set like clockwork, nailing every laugh line without missing Ayckbourn’s disturbing undercurrents. The play is a remarkable piece of writing, using the mechanics of farce to satirize a society where selfishness is becoming more and more encouraged; and morality, becoming ever more grey. There’s an insightful, pre-show interview feature with the director, playwright and actors. The intermission interview, however, conducted by Emma Freud, is an unnecessary chat show.

This screening was at the Sundance Sunset Cinema, a 21-and-over theater located on the east end of the Sunset Strip. It’s a very handsome venue, with reserved seating, a full dining menu and serving beer, wine and champagne. Its upcoming NT Live shows are Medea on 10/6 & 10/11, and Skylight on 10/25 & 10/27. Further information is available at sundancecinemas.com.

Coincidentally, LATW also presents NT Live screenings at UCLA, and they’ll be showing A Small Family Business on 7/20 at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Go to www.latw.org for tickets and info.