900 oneonta

"The story of a dysfunctional southern family"

A CurtainUp LA Review - 900 Oneonta
By Jack Holland

Before coming to the Odyssey, 900 Oneonta was produced in London at the Lyric Hammersmith, the Old Vic and then on the West End where it was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for "Best Play." It is understandable why it was nominated for such an award. It is a mystery as to why such a strong and very American play as this has to go abroad to be recognized.
Written and directed by David Baeird 900 Oneonta is like Tennesee Williams on steroids. Itís set in the living room of a wealthy familyís "creaky old" house in the deep south of Bastrop, Louisiana in 1979. It opens with the grand-daddy patriarch of the family, Dandy, on the floor, clutching his heart and on the verge of dying. He manages to crawl onto his chair and once he starts yelling for his maid the action never stops. It seems every tragedy that occurs in every Tennesee Williams play has happened in this family and now that the patriarch is dying, itís all going to come out. The play sometimes verges on being overly melodramatic, but the skill of the actors and the fine staging by Mr. Beaird keep it fresh and exciting.

This is from an article by David Gritten in the Aug. 14, 1994 L.A.Times Calendar section:

Sure, Now They're Interested

LONDON-- American dramatist David Beaird is the talk of the town here--all because of a play he insists was rejected by every major theater in America.
His semi-autobiographical "900 Oneonta" opened at the Old Vic July 18 to a chorus of praise from Britain's normally skeptical theater critics. "I wrote this script and we sent it to every theater in America," Beaird confirmed.
"Wouldn't you think it would get a reading from at least one American
theater somewhere? I even made a videotape, at a cost of $5,000 to myself, of a reading of the play, with the audience laughing and roaring. It made no difference. So why can I come to London, open the play and get all these terrific reviews? I want to know what that's about."

In truth, "900 Oneonta" may have been too rich for the taste of most American theater managements in this era of political correctness. A brilliantly plotted slab of Southern Gothic, it deals with a bigoted, dysfunctional family made wealthy by the business cunning of Dandy, its dying patriarch, a foul-mouthed wildcat oilman. This family contains incest victims, a dopehead, a cancer patient, an alcoholic, two impotent men and a woman made infertile by an illegal teen-age abortion. The crux of the play is whether the family line will survive, and to whom the patriarch will leave his fortune.

Despite is heavy subject matter, "900 Oneonta" is savagely, outrageously funny. Now, ironically, the London producers plan to take it to Broadway next year. And says Beaird, a Hollywood studio and a currently hot production company are eager to secure film rights.

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