Whether for comedy or tragedy, or dark places in between, unhappy families yield the richest material. Tolstoy would agree, as would Arthur Miller, Sam Shepard, Tennessee Williams, and actor-writer Tracy Letts, Pulitzer- and Tony-winner for “August: Osage County.”

Audience and critic buzz first brought it to Stacy Alley’s attention; the film, cutting an hour from the stage time, convinced her the play needed to return to life. The University of Alabama Department of Theatre and Dance’s production of “August: Osage County” opens Tuesday.

Alley, an associate professor in the department, just missed it in the show’s final days in New York, but based on what she’d heard, read the script. She then saw the movie in theatrical release, ”… and I liked it, but I didn’t love it, because I really think this story needs to be in a shared space,” she said. “It’s voyeuristic; it feels like you’re part of the family.”

Following a dilemma involving the family patriarch, the extended clan gathers in the three-story home of Beverly and Violet Weston. It is not a happy reunion.