Parsons Photo by Joan Marcus

“Thank God we can’t tell the future,” says Barbara Fordham, the antagonist in Tracy Letts’s Tony Award-winning drama, August: Osage County, “or we’d never get out of bed,” she concludes. Now the touring production of this three-and-a-half-hour psycho-saga has arrived at Los Angeles’s Ahmanson Theatre, and it’s staying only until October 18.

If familial drama and dysfunction—ala The Glass Menagerie or Long Day’s Journey into Night—appeals to you, Letts’s whip-sharp dialogue and tense theatrical triangulations—given razor’s edge direction by Anna D. Shapiro—provides one good  reason to get out of bed and head toward downtown L.A.

A remarkable Estelle Parsons plays Oklahoma matriarch Violet Weston—she’s a multi- pill-popping prescription drug addict, dying of mouth cancer. Her body may be deteriorating, her mind is certainly addled, but her talent for meanness hasn’t diminished over her lifetime.

The show opens as Weston paterfamilias Beverly (Jon DeVries making this character so real and so funny) talks with perspective housekeeper/cook Johnna (Delanna Studi exhibiting some marvelous moments in this role). Beverly is a poet and erstwhile professor given to quoting T.S. Eliot, as when he recites, “The world is gradually becoming a place where I don’t care to be anymore.” Little does anyone suspect that Beverly is not so much paying tribute to Eliot as declaring his intention to self-annihilate. “My wife takes pills and I drink,” says he. “That’s the bargain we’ve struck.” But clearly it is no longer an arrangement by which Beverly is able to abide.

Upon learning of Beverly’s departure and presumed demise, his and Violet’s adult daughters—Barbara Fordham (Shannon Cochran, spry and dangerous), Ivy Weston (Angelica Torn, in a convincingly neurotic turn), and Karen Weston (Amy Warren, playing the denial card for all it’s worth)—descend upon their old home-on-the-plains in a combustible burst of clannish support and relation pathology.

What’s more, each of these three sisters has an ex-husband, boyfriend, or liaison dangereuse in-tow, in love, or incognito. We see an array of colorful personas on display here, including Barbara’s estranged mate, Bill Fordham (Jeff Still, in a sturdy portrayal), Charlie and Mattie Aiken—Violet’s brother in-law and sister (Paul Vincent O’Connor and Libby George, each rendering nuanced and complex characterizations), and a gallery of various generational types such as Little Charles (Stephen Riley Key, credibly bizarre), Jean Fordham (a beautifully naïve incarnation by Emily Kinney), and low-life opportunist Steve Heidebrecht (Laurence Lau, indulging the underbelly of his embodiment).

Scenic designer Todd Rosenthal magnificently evokes the towering three-story infrastructure that stands as the Weston homestead. Though it’s currently a thoroughly populated house, it has an eerie discord and haunting emptiness. Ann G. Wrightson’s lighting motif sets the stage for revelations while giving spotlighted focus to the proceedings. Also, Richard Woodbury’s sound design, Davis Singer’s original music, and Ana Kuzmanic’s real-life costuming all add visceral punch to the unnerving August: Osage County.

This show is a theatrical marathon of maladies—ranging from prescription drug abuse to incest and cancer. Playwright Letts has said it is “absolutely a political parable.” Whatever else it may be, August: Osage County is surely a masterful production that demands the attention of mature and devoted theatergoers.

August: Osage County continues at the Ahmanson Theatre—135 North Grand Avenue, Los Angeles—through October 18. Performances are Tuesday through Friday at 7:30 p.m. On Saturdays, show times are at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. On Sundays, performances are at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. (No evening show on October 11 and 18. Two Thursday matinees are on October 8 and 15 at 2 p.m.) For reservations, dial (213) 972 – 4400. For online ticketing, visit www.CenterTheatreGroup.org.