Desire Under The Elms
Eugene O’Neill’s 1924 drama is based, in part, on Euripides’ version of the Greek legend of Phaedra, married to Theseus, step-mother to Hippolytus, who commits the sin of incest by seducing Theseus’ son, who has sworn himself to celibacy by his devotion to the goddess, Artimis.
O’Neill places his action in a New England state during the 1850s. Ephraim Cabot (William Dennis Hunt) is a God-fearin’ farmer, straight out of the Old Testament, who at 70 has brought home a new wife from an adjoining county to bring forth new sons, in order to disinherit his three grown sons. The older two, Peter (Stephen Rockwell) and Simeon (Christopher Fairbanks), leave for the gold fields of California, using money stolen from the old man by their younger half-brother, Eben (Jason Dechert).
Eben resents the way old Ephraim had worked Eben’s mother to death. He keeps seeing her ghost or spirit in the formal sitting room, unused by the rough-and-tumble sons. Abbie Putnam (Monette Magrath), the new young wife, has come from a tough background and is determined to make this new home her own, previous sons be damned. What no one had anticipated is how the two younger people find themselves in love and parents of a boy-child old Ephraim claims as his own, much to the amused contempt of the locals.
Under Dámaso Rodriguez’s astute direction, this tragic tale plays out at just about two hours and is dynamic on all fronts. The new home of A Noise Within is a thrust stage fronting a u-shape seating of the audience. Rodriguez wisely takes much of the action downstage, opening it up on John Iacovilli’s first-rate two-story set. And then lets his actors create the pace of the action, although the christening ceremony with village folk is cramped; they might have benefitted from cutting it altogether as the director doesn’t solve the problem of crowding.
Since casting is, at a minimum, fifty percent of a director’s job, placing the right actor in the correct role is paramount. And here it has payoffs: Hunt, a tall, well-built senior has the power and presence to make this miser and tyrant powerful to watch. He doesn’t understand other people, especially his sons and his new wife, but knows he is slowing down and wants to spite his offspring. Magrath, as Abbie, solidly portrays her mistake in becoming the seductress who will instigate the tragic denouement. Dechert, as Eben, commits to his character knowing better but the young man is undone by passion. Thus the old man falls hard, as do the other principals, by unwise deeds.
Oddly enough, “Desire” isn’t performed as much as O’Neill’s later works, but the melodrama is kept honest in the poetic writing and it all plays out in realistic terms. This production should not be missed for a wide variety of reasons, including keeping this fine company in the black, as well as educating us to old plays that deserve our attention.
At A Noise Within, 3352 East Foothill Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91107 (@ Sierra Madre Villa Blvd). Tickets: 626.356.3100 or at www.ANoiseWithin.org. Through Sunday, December 18th, 2011.