Family is horrible.

This is the first and most important thing we take from the Weston clan in Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play “August: Osage County,” produced by American Stage Theatre Company at the Palladium Theater through Oct. 30.

They fight, destroy, and fill each other with sorrow and regrets that last a lifetime. The best the characters in this sprawling epic can hope for is to have their children outlive them. Yet, as dark as the play becomes – and trust me, it is pitch black at times – the amazing truth found in the writing, skillfulness of the directing, and sheer excellence of the acting keeps the audience enthralled through three acts of heartbreaking, yet often bitingly funny, tour de force entertainment. On every level, this is professional theater at its finest.

The prologue opens with Beverly, a one-time award-winning poet and the family’s patriarch, quoting T.S. Eliot to the Native American girl he has just hired to take care of the house because, as he tells the young Cheyenne, “It’s getting in the way of my drinking.” His wife, Violet, enters from upstairs looking like a crazed wraith from a Hammer horror film, completely whacked out of her mind on painkillers and reminding everyone of the terror that often accompanies addiction. As anyone who has had to take care of someone in this condition will attest to, this is truly a stunning moment for its aching authenticity.

In the next scene we learn that Beverly has gone missing and Violet has called her three grown daughters back to the homestead in Pawhuska, Okla., to help console her. Gone is the ghostly apparition of a woman that occupied the stage in the prologue. Replacing her is the most mean-spirited and acid-tongued mother in modern theater history. I’m still not sure which version of Violet was more chilling.

Over the next three hours Violet unflinchingly eviscerates her children and their spouses while we learn the troubling secrets of how this family’s dysfunctional nature continues to evolve and grow. Every time we believe we’ve reached the lowest point, a new depravity digs the hole a little deeper, keeping the audience completely rapt the entire time.

Scott Cooper’s beautiful set is designed to feel less like a three-story home and more like an opened doll house. Director Todd Olson takes advantage of this by moving his actors around like play things, leaving characters sitting in the shadows of one room while the audiences’ attention is drawn to drama unfolding somewhere else in the house. The effect is creepy and unsettling as actors reappear from the places you forget he had left them. Olson truly deserves to be ranked among the most talented directors in Florida.

Bringing this piece to life is the finest ensemble of acting skill to ever grace a Tampa Bay area stage. This virtual who’s who is headlined by the estimable Lisa McMillan, who played another wicked mother in American Stage’s production of “Suddenly Last Summer” a few years back. Her virtuoso portrayal of Violet is nuanced and utterly believable. You can’t help but be drawn to her performance even as the most vile and repulsive dialogue comes spouting from her mouth.

Equally as powerful is the work done by Julie Rowe and Katherine Michelle Tanner, who play Violets daughters Barbara and Ivy with such charisma and talent that you can’t blink every time they take the stage for fear you’ll miss something amazing.

Unforgettable performances are also put in by Michael Edwards, Steve Garland, Kerry Glamsch, Meg Heimstead, Tia Jemison, Wayne LeGette, Sarah McAvoy, Joe Parra, Brian Shea and Karel K. Wright.

When the audience jumped to their feet at the end of the show and clapped their hands in unison , every one of these talented actors earned their accolades. Applause should also be given to Mike and Kathy Buck for their perfect costume designs and Joseph P. Oshry for his evocative lighting design.

Speaking of applause, one has to go out of their way to congratulate American Stage for producing such a major work in Tampa Bay. While other larger theaters on the Gulf Coast shied away from this important piece of modern theatre, American Stage was daring enough stage a production that will be remembered for years to come.