http://www.augustonbroadway.com/home.php
The "scrapbook" link is wonderful in general - the photos are marvelous. The photos of Estelle Parsons as Violet remind me of Judi Dench, in a very strange and fantastic way. And I especially like the photo, near the end of the photo chain, of Karen, Steve, and Jean, where Karen has bright red hair and couldn't look more tragically desperate and willfully clueless if she tried. But the clips are my favorite part.
Especially the third and last, the scene where Violet and Mattie Fae are arguing over whether or not older women are sexy. And Violet says, "Wouldn't we be better off, all of us, if we stopped lying about these things and told the truth?" Of course she's talking at that moment about her stance that older women aren't sexy. But of course, the line also means that there are secrets hidden within the family that no one's bringing up. I'm not sure if she's right, if revealing those secrets would make everything better (after all, Karen still stays with Steve even after she finds out what kind of person he really is). But certainly keeping the secrets for as long as they all have has led the Westons to the place they're at now.
Another great thing is that the way the set is designed, the play can preserve those secrets from the family while at the same time showing them to the audience. Like this one, for instance:
Everyone's onstage, all these different levels. And everyone's got something shielding them from everyone else. Ivy's hiding behind the table; Mattie Fae and Charlie have the couch between them; Karen and Steve have retreated to the alcove where it's harder to see them from the living room. And Violet and Barbara, of course, are upstairs, where only the audience can see. That really is a secret - that's not going to come out until they raise the issue.
And because they've all got these secrets, because they're all hiding behind something, there's a real distance to that photo that I think mirrors perfectly the distance in every relationship in that family. The secrets are the real barriers - the table and couch and second floor are just stand-ins for what's really creating the distance. And at this point in the family's life, it's too late to change things. The barriers can't be breached - even when they tell the truth, it only creates more distance and more hate and (think of Ivy and Little Charles) more secrets to be kept, or to reveal and destroy something in the revealing.
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