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''Desire Under the Elms'' is a 1924 play written by
Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earli ...
. Like ''
Mourning Becomes Electra ''Mourning Becomes Electra'' is a play cycle written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on 26 October 1931 where it ran for 150 performances before closing in March 1932, starring Lee Baker ...
'', ''Desire Under the Elms'' signifies an attempt by O'Neill to adapt plot elements and themes of
Greek tragedy Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Greek inhabited Anatolia. It reached its most significant form in Athens in the 5th century BC, the works of which are sometimes called Attic tragedy. Greek tragedy is widely believed t ...
to a rural
New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
setting. It was inspired by the myth of
Phaedra Phaedra may refer to: Mythology * Phaedra (mythology), Cretan princess, daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë, wife of Theseus Arts and entertainment * ''Phaedra'' (Alexandre Cabanel), an 1880 painting Film * ''Phaedra'' (film), a 1962 film by ...
, Hippolytus, and
Theseus Theseus (, ; grc-gre, Θησεύς ) was the mythical king and founder-hero of Athens. The myths surrounding Theseus his journeys, exploits, and friends have provided material for fiction throughout the ages. Theseus is sometimes describ ...
. A film version was produced in 1958, and there is an operatic setting by Edward Thomas.


Characters

The following descriptions are taken from the text of the play. * Eben – He is twenty-five, tall and sinewy. His face is well-formed, good-looking, but its expression is resentful and defensive. His defiant, dark eyes remind one of a wild animal's in captivity. Each day is a cage in which he finds himself trapped but inwardly unsubdued. There is a fierce, repressed vitality about him. He has black hair, moustache, a thin, curly trace of beard. He is dressed in rough farm clothes. * Simeon and Peter – hey aretall men, much older than their half-brother imeon is thirty-nine and Peter thirty-seven built on a squarer, simpler model, fleshier in body, more bovine and homelier in face, shrewder and more practical. Their shoulders stoop a bit from years of farm work. They clump heavily along in their clumsy thick-soled boots caked with earth. Their clothes, their faces, hands, bare arms and throats are earth-stained. They smell of dirt. * Ephraim Cabot – eis seventy-five, tall and gaunt, with great, wiry, concentrated power, but stoop-shouldered from toil. His face is as hard as if it were hewn out of a boulder, yet there is a weakness in it, a petty pride in its own narrow strength. His eyes are small, close together, and extremely near-sighted, blinking continually in the effort to focus on objects, their stare having a straining, ingrowing quality. He is dressed in his dismal black Sunday suit. * Abbie Putnam – heis thirty-five, buxom, full of vitality. Her round face is pretty but marred by its rather gross sensuality. There are strength and obstinacy in her jaw, a hard determination in her eyes, and about her whole personality, the same unsettled, untamed, desperate quality so apparent in Eben. * Young Girl * Two Farmers * The Fiddler * A Sheriff


Synopsis

Act 1, Scene 1 The play opens at the exterior of a farmhouse in New England. It is sunset on an early summer day in 1850. Eben Cabot enters and walks to the edge of the porch. He rings a bell to call in his half-brothers, Simeon and Peter, who emerge soon after Eben goes back inside. The two brothers begin to talk about gold in the west and the risk of leaving everything they have worked for here. Eben sticks his head out the window as the two brothers speculate over their father's disappearance to the west, saying that he hasn't left the farm in 30 years or more. They decide they can't go west until their father dies. Eben reveals himself then by saying he prays his father were dead. With one last look at the setting sun and the promise of the west, the brothers retreat inside for supper. Act 1, Scene 2 This scene opens at twilight in the kitchen of the farmhouse. As the three brothers eat dinner, Simeon and Peter reprimand Eben for speaking ill of their father. Eben then unloads his hate for his father because Eben blames him for his mother's death. He denounces his father saying he is his mother through and through. Eben also reveals his grudge against his half-brothers for not helping or protecting his mother. He then leaves to visit his local prostitute. As Eben leaves, his brothers remark on how like his father he is. Act 1, Scene 3 Eben comes home late and wakes his brothers. He informs them that their father has remarried a 35-year-old woman and is on his way home. When Simeon and Peter realise the farm will go to her, they decide to go west. Eben desperately wants the farm because it belonged to his mother and he wishes to honor her memory. He offers to buy his brother's shares of the farm for $300 each. They tell him they will think about it, waiting to decide until they see their father's new wife and can see the money in person. However, as soon as Eben leaves the room, they decide to stop working the farm. Act 1, Scene 4 The brothers reveal to Eben they won't be working on the farm anymore, so Eben goes to milk the cows while Peter and Simeon get drunk. Eben returns to the house after seeing his father and his new wife on the horizon. Peter and Simeon decide to leave the farm and sign the papers for Eben. They walk outside; taunt their father, Ephraim, and his new wife, Abbie; and then leave for California. Abbie begins to explore the house and runs into Eben. They are both attracted to each other but fight over the future possession of the farm. The scene closes with harsh words between Ephraim and Eben. Act 2, Scene 1 This scene takes place outside the farmhouse two months later. Abbie catches Eben on the way to visit Min, his choice prostitute. She tries to seduce him, but he has only a mind for owning the farm and leaves her. Ephraim enters and is transformed. He is now gentle and is coming around to the idea of Eben owning the farm. Abbie gets upset at possibly losing the farm to Eben and claims he was lusting after her. Ephraim wants to throw Eben off the farm, but Abbie convinces him that Eben is needed to do the farm work. She then suggests they have a son, and Ephraim promises to give her the farm if she does. Act 2, Scene 2 Ephraim and Abbie sit in their bedroom talking about having a son. Ephraim tells the story of how he made the farm when he was only 20 years old and the terrible loneliness he has experienced with his wives. Abbie has no interest in his story, and he leaves. Abbie then goes to Eben's room and kisses him. He kisses her, but then, confused, pushes her away. However, caught in her power, he agrees to court her in the parlor that has been closed since his mother's death. Act 2, Scene 3 Eben meets Abbie in the parlor where Eben talks about his mother, beginning to cry. Abbie comforts him, saying that she could be a new mom to him and asking him to kiss her. Eventually Eben gives in and admits he loves her and has since the first hour he met her. Act 2, Scene 4 Abbie bids Eben goodbye as he heads for work. She makes him re-swear his love and then goes to get some sleep. Eben runs into his father and asks for their feud to be over. He believes his mother's soul is now at rest because he has taken revenge on his father and goes off to work laughing. Act 3, Scene 1 Ephraim throws a party for the birth of what he considers his new son. Abbie sits in a chair, pale and unmoving. She keeps asking where Eben is. The party guests keep hinting that they know the son is Eben's but neither Abbie nor Ephraim catch on. Abbie goes upstairs and finds Eben, they kiss, and she says the baby looks just like him. Ephraim goes outside for air, and with a feeling that something's not at rest, goes to sleep with the cows. Act 3, Scene 2 Ephraim runs into Eben later that night and tells him he will not have the farm now that Ephraim has a son. Eben becomes convinced that Abbie has been using him and confronts her about it once Ephraim goes inside and Abbie comes out. He says that he is going to leave, that he doesn't love her, and that she is a lying whore. Hysterical, she asks that if there is any way to prove that she didn't have a son with him to steal the land from him, would he ever love her again? He says yes, but that she isn't God, so there is no way. She promises that there is and Eben goes inside to get drunk. Act 3, Scene 3 It is the morning after the party and Eben sits in the kitchen with his bag packed. Abbie comes downstairs and tells him what she has done to prove she loves him and wasn't lying. She has killed their son. Enraged, Eben condemns her and runs out to get a sheriff to take her away. Abbie faints. Act 3, Scene 4 Ephraim wakes up, and Abbie tells him she has murdered the baby and that it wasn't his. He becomes detached and says he is going out to work. Before he leaves, Ephraim says she should have loved him and he would have protected her no matter what. Eben comes back and professes that he still loves her but that he told the sheriff. He demands to take some fault for murder. Abbie doesn't want him to, but he blurts it out the moment the sheriff arrives. The two get taken away together.


Influences

''Desire Under the Elms'' was inspired by plot elements and characters from the
Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars ...
play ''Hippolytus''. In it, Phaedra, Theseus' wife, attempts to seduce his son, chaste Hippolytus. After this fails and Hippolytus threatens to reveal her unfaithfulness, Phaedra commits suicide. Theseus finds a letter that Phaedra carried accusing Hippolytus of raping her. Enraged, Theseus (using one of three wishes that his father Poseidon promised him) curses his son with banishment or death. After Hippolytus is fatally wounded by an encounter with a bull, Artemis arrives to reveal the truth to Theseus, and Hippolytus dies after absolving his father. The characters Eben, Abbie, and Ephraim roughly correspond with Hippolytus, Phaedra, and Theseus respectively. Both plays are driven by a love triangle between a father, a son, and a stepmother, and the tragedy arises from misguided actions made by the stepmother. In Phaedra's case it is her lust of her husband's son and the falseness of her letter. O'Neill takes this one step further in ''Desire Under the Elms'' and makes Abbie's misguided actions the begetting and murder of her child. In ''Desire Under the Elms: In the Light of Strindberg's Influence'', Murray Hartman also saw strong parallels between ''Desire Under the Elms'' and the work of
August Strindberg Johan August Strindberg (, ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than sixty p ...
, writing "At any rate, there is hardly a plot element in the play that cannot be traced to one or more sources in Strindberg." He details several elements of O'Neill and Strindberg's biographies that are similar, and how they manifest in ''Desire Under the Elms'', in addition to naming several specific works of Strindberg's, such as '' The People of Hemsö'', ''The Bridal Crown'', and '' The Son of a Servant''. Specifically, he points out very similarly confused relationships with the writers' respective mothers and contentious relationships with their fathers. He also writes, "The basic situation, where the young son has seen his beloved mother worked to death by a hard father and then has had to bear the usurpation of her position by an aggressive stepmother, has its origin in ''The Son of a Servant''." This can be seen in ''Desire under the Elms'' through Eben's opinion that Ephraim worked his mother to death and largely drives the plot.


Production history

Provincetown Players (
off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...
, 1924) – Starring
Walter Huston Walter Thomas Huston ( ;According to the Province of Ontario. ''Ontario, C ...
as Ephraim Cabot, Mary Morris as Abbie Putnam and Charles Ellis as Eben Cabot. After two months at the Greenwich Village Theater, this production transferred to
Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
and played an additional nine months, first at the Earl Carroll Theatre, then at George M. Cohan's Theatre and finally at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre, for a total of 420 performances. Broadway (1952) – Directed by Harold Clurman, produced by The American National Theater and Academy. Starring
Karl Malden Karl Malden (born Mladen George Sekulovich; March 22, 1912 – July 1, 2009) was an American actor. He was primarily a character actor, who according to Robert Berkvist, "for more than 60 years brought an intelligent intensity and a homespun aut ...
as Ephraim Cabot,
Douglass Watson Larkin Douglass Watson III (February 24, 1921 — May 1, 1989) was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of Mac Cory on the daytime soap opera '' Another World''. Life and career Watson was born in Jackson, Georgia, the son ...
as Eben Cabot and
Carol Stone Carol Ann Stone (formerly Peter James Stone, 1954–2014) was an English Anglican priest and chaplain. She was the first serving priest of the Church of England to transition from male to female. She was ordained in 1978 as a male, underwent ...
as Abbie Putnam, 46 performances. Academy Festival Theatre (Lake Forest, Illinois, 1974) Directed by Vinette Carrol, produced by William T. Gardner. Starring
Roscoe Lee Browne Roscoe Lee Browne (May 2, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American actor and director. He resisted playing stereotypically black roles, instead performing in several productions with New York City's Shakespeare Festival Theater, Leland Hayward ...
as Ephraim Cabot,
Glynn Turman Glynn Russell Turman (born January 31, 1947) is an American actor, writer, director, and producer. Turman is known for his roles as Lew Miles on the prime-time soap opera '' Peyton Place'' (1968–1969), high school student Leroy "Preach" Jackson ...
as Eben Cabot and
Cicely Tyson Cicely Louise Tyson (December 19, 1924January 28, 2021) was an American actress. In a career which spanned more than seven decades in film, television and theatre, she became known for her portrayal of strong African-American women. Tyson recei ...
as Abbie Putnam. Asmita Theatre (
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
, 1995) – Directed by
Arvind Gaur Arvind Gaur is an Indian theatre director known for innovative, socially and politically relevant plays in India. Gaur's plays are contemporary and thought-provoking, connecting intimate personal spheres of existence to larger social politi ...
, translated by Nadira Babbar, starring
Deepak Dobriyal Deepak Dobriyal (born 1 September 1975) is an Indian film and theatre actor. He is recipient of a Filmfare award. He worked in many Bollywood films such as '' Omkara'' (2006), '' Shaurya'' (2008), ''Tanu Weds Manu'' (2011), '' Dabangg 2'' (2012) ...
,
Manu Rishi Manu Rishi Chadha (born 3 January 1971) is an Indian actor, lyricist, script and dialogue writer who works in Hindi films. Rishi is trained under theatre director Arvind Gaur for six years. He won the Filmfare Best Dialogue Award, 2009 for '' O ...
, Deepak Ochani and Arachana Shintre Joshii, 14 performances.
Goodman Theatre Goodman Theatre is a professional theater company located in Chicago's Loop. A major part of the Chicago theatre scene, it is the city's oldest currently active nonprofit theater organization. Part of its present theater complex occupies the la ...
(Chicago, 2009) – Directed by Robert Falls, starring
Brian Dennehy Brian Manion Dennehy (; July 9, 1938 – April 15, 2020) was an American actor of stage, television, and film. He won two Tony Awards, an Olivier Award, and a Golden Globe, and received six Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Dennehy had roles i ...
as Ephraim Cabot,
Carla Gugino Carla Gugino (; born August 29, 1971) is an American actress. After appearing in ''Troop Beverly Hills'' (1989) and ''This Boy's Life'' (1993), she received recognition for her starring roles as Ingrid Cortez in the ''Spy Kids'' trilogy (2001� ...
as Anna Putnam and
Pablo Schreiber Pablo Tell Schreiber (born April 26, 1978) is a Canadian-American actor. He is best known for his stage work and for portraying Nick Sobotka on ''The Wire'' (2003), William Lewis on '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' (2013–2014), Mad S ...
as Eben Cabot. Sri Ram Centre Theatre (Mandi House, New Delhi, India, 2010) – A RAS production. Directed by Deepak Ochaney and Gajraj Nagar, starring Mukul Saran Mathur as Ephraim Cabot, Sanjeela Mathur as Anna Putnam, six performances.
Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
(2009) – Transfer of the Goodman production; opened April 27, 2009 at the St. James Theater, 32 performances. New Vic Theatre (
Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme ( RP: , ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. The 2011 census population of the town was 75,082, whilst the wider borough had a population of 1 ...
, Staffordshire, UK, 2010) – Directed by James Dacre, starring Gareth Thomas as Ephraim Cabot, Victoria Lloyd as Anna Putnam, Cary Crankson as Eben Cabot, Owen Oakeshott as Peter Cabot and Timothy Chipping as Simeon Cabot. Lyric Hammersmith (2012) – Directed by Sean Holmes and designed by Ian MacNeil, starring Morgan Watkins as Eben Cabot,
Denise Gough Denise Gough (born 28 February 1980) is an Irish actress. She is the elder sister of the actress Kelly Gough. She has worked in film, television, video games and theatre. Gough is a double Olivier Award winner. Early life Born in Ennis, Cou ...
as Anna Putnam and
Finbar Lynch Finbar Lynch (born 28 August 1959) is an Irish actor. Early life Lynch was born in Dublin, and at the age of 11, moved with his family to the village of Inverin, County Galway where his father ran a clothing factory under a scheme to encourage ...
as Ephraim Cabot. This play was adapted by
Balwant Gargi Balwant Gargi (4 December 1916 – 22 April 2003) was an Indian Punjabi language dramatist, theatre director, novelist, and short story writer, and academic. Early life On 4 December 1916, in Canal House in Sehna, Barnala (Punjab), Balwant Gar ...
(under the name "Balde Tibbe") in
Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
, Department of Drama and Dramatics, Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, as the second—year final production of 2015. Held on 26 November 2016. Direction: Reza Arif.
Shaw Festival The Shaw Festival is a not-for-profit theatre festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. It is the second largest repertory theatre company in North America. The Shaw Festival was founded in 1962. Originally, it only featured productio ...
, (2021) - ''Desire Under the Elms'' was initially scheduled as a part of the festival's 2020 season, but the season was eventually cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, and the production was moved to the fall of the 2021 season. Directed by Tim Carroll, set by Judith Bowden, Lighting by Kevin Lamotte, costumes by Joyce Padua.


References

* *
Desire Under the Elms
" ''Encyclopædia Britannica Online.'' Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. * Euripides. "Hippolytus Ιππόλυτος." Bacchic Stage. Trans. George Theodoridis. Bacchic Stage, February 25, 2011. Web. December 17, 2014.


External links


''Desire Under the Elms'' Broadway Show Page
at BroadwaysBestShows.com

from Project Gutenberg of Australia. * * {{Authority control 1924 plays Plays by Eugene O'Neill American plays adapted into films Phaedra Cultural depictions of Theseus Tragedy plays Plays based on works by Euripides Works based on Hippolytus (play) Modern adaptations of works by Euripides