Theater critic: a captivating “Desire under the elms” at the Actor’s Express

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Actors Express offers a gripping evening of theater with a staging of Eugene ONeills’ tragic drama Desire Under the Elms, through August 28.

O’Neill is a towering figure in American theatre, the only American playwright to win the Nobel Prize (I think Tennessee Williams should have won it too, but that’s another story).

I will mention that O’Neill’s masterpiece, Long Days Journey into Night, gave me one of the best evenings of theater I have ever had; the 2003 Broadway revival starring Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Dennehy, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robert Sean Leonard. It was sublime.

Desire was written earlier in his career (1924). For this play, he was heavily influenced by Greek tragedian Euripides Hippolytus, who has a love triangle between a father, son, and stepmother.

O’Neill also admired and was influenced by Swedish playwright August Strindberg, who championed naturalism, which emphasizes the importance of heredity and environment on human action.

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The action of Desire Under the Elms is set in 1850 in and around Cabot’s Rocky Farm in rural New England. The owner of the farm is Ephraim Cabot (Tim McDonough), 75, an old badass if there ever was one. He speaks with a rural American English vernacular, much like the other characters; they didn’t have much formal education, but they are powerful and memorable characters capable of great passions and aspirations.

Ephraim has three sons: Simeon and Peter (Jason Kirkpatrick and Brian Ashton Smith) both around 36 years old, more bovine and simpler than their younger half-brother Eben, but also more shrewd and practical.

Eben (Ryan Vo) is about 25 years old; O’Neill says his face is well formed, handsome, but his expression is resentful and defensive. Eben feels his mother has been practically worked to death by old Cabot; moreover, his relatives have always claimed that the farm was in fact his. Eben remembers it.

Simeon and Peter’s mother also died. And now Cabot has gone in search of a third wife, although he said: I will go out to learn God’s message in the spring, as the prophets did. While he is away, the two older brothers tell Eben that they are heading to California for the gold rush, although they want to own the farm when their father dies.

Eben too. He offers Simeon and Peter $300 each to sell their share of the farm to him, and they accept. What no one counted on was Cabot’s sudden return with a new bride of 35, a pretty woman named Abbie (Precious West).

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This is where the room’s fireworks begin. Eben instantly resents Abbie, as he knows she will now inherit the farm in his place and by proxy, his late mother, whom he loves and reveres. But Abbie has a spirit and passions of her own; and when she meets Eben, she likes what she sees. And that’s all the plot you get, except to say that Abbie suggests to Cabot that she might give him a son; Cabot quickly and earnestly accepts.

As a feisty, rock-hard old patriarch, Tim McDonough commands the stage. I saw this actor play King Lear once, superbly, and he brings all of his skills, talent, and experience to the role of Cabot. It is a wonder.

Mrs. West and Mr. Vo bring the power and passion of youth to Abbie and Eben. When Eben says of his late mother, Sometimes she used to sing for me, and bursts into tears, it’s really very moving.

Brian Ashton Smith and James Kirkpatrick provide excellent support as Peter and Simeon; and James Baskin is an excellent sheriff.

Kat Conley’s stage design, with the audience seated on both sides of the playing area, works beautifully. The same goes for the lighting design of Joseph P. Monaghan III. And I believe Chris Lane and Kate Hoang, sound designers, wrote the music, which is top-notch.

Desire Under the Elms isn’t an easy piece to produce or perform, but art director Freddie Ashley is more than up to the challenge. He knows it’s not ONeill’s greatest work, but any ONeill play is an event in my book, and Mr. Ashley’s love and knowledge of theater is on full display here.

For tickets and information, visit actors-express.com.