Desire Under the Elms

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DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS

Photo: Liz Lauren

Cititour.com Review
Usually when you think of an O’Neill play you associate it with a richly textured, but often long, evening in the theatre. But the new revival of Desire Under the Elms has been trimmed to a tidy 100 minutes.

Now you might think it of it as O’Neill, light, but that would be misleading. This production, directed by Robert Falls, is heavy-handed and played in the single pitch of hysteria. Perhaps they felt the need to make it feel more important since they lost so much of the original lyrical dialogue. But the cuts here have put the play out of balance. An O’Neill drama is carefully structured, building character slowly to an incredible climax. In this new version we quickly get to the heat, but the payoff is not particularly satisfying.

Brian Dennehy is Ephraim Cabot, a virulent farmer with three grown sons who despise him. When he takes his third wife, a steamy spitfire played by Carla Gugino, his youngest son, Eben, falls in love with her setting up a conflict of biblical proportions.

Gugino is filled with passion and pain putting forth a terrific performance of the desperate woman scratching for something of her own. Pablo Schreiber as her lover, is best when his carnal desires awaken. Dennehy’s hardhearted patriarch is the embodiment of a hungry soul.

Walt Spangler’s scene design has replaced the elm trees with hundreds of massive boulders and looks more like a quarry than a farm. The house set, when flown out, hovers over the rocks suspended in the air by thick ropes and descends to the stage floor as if falling into the pit of hell. The opening sequence is filled with gross-out moments while the two older brothers, (Boris McGiver, Daniel Stewart Sherman) bring to mind the dim-witted grousing in Of Mice and Men. Nothing is subtle here. And that’s the problem with Robert Falls’ self-aware concept. It’s Desire Under the Elms with sexual tension and little else.

By Lesley Alexander


Visit the Site
http://www.desireonbroadway.com/

Cast
Brian Dennehy, Carla Gugino, Pablo Schreiber, Boris McGiver, Daniel Stewart Sherman

Open/Close Dates
Opening 4/14/2009
Closing 7/5/2009

Box Office
212-239-6200

Theatre Info
St. James Theatre
246 West 44th Street
New York, NY 10036
Map



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