Human struggle finds a place under the elms

PATRICK MCGARVEY/YH Chrissy Paraskovopoulous, SM '99, and Andrew Winton, JE '01, exchange harsh words.

This weekend's Dramat production of Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms at the Yale Repertory Theater coincides with the influx of parents arriving on campus. And while the themes of incest, sex, and death may not provide the most appropriate viewing material for Parents' Weekend, they nonetheless make for a riveting evening of undergraduate theater.

J.J. Lind, SY '98, whose previous directing credits at Yale include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Spring Awakening, and Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, takes on an entirely new challenge with O'Neill's drama, weaving comedy and tragedy together in a single production. If at times the comedy appears forced or the tragedy too extreme, it's because the play covers such a broad spectrum of human emotions. For the most part, Lind treats the sometimes heavy-handed theatricality of O'Neill's play with a firm hand and a keen eye, often using its staginess to serve his own dramatic purposes.

The play takes place in 1850 in and around a New England farmhouse. Two massive elm trees stand on either side of the stage, alternately sheltering and suffocating the farm's inhabitants. Ephraim (Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum, JE '00), the patriarch of the family, has ridden off in search of God's message, leaving his three sons behind to tend the livestock and crops. When he returns unexpectedly with a new wife, his two elder sons depart in search of "gold in the West." It is Ephraim's youngest son, Eben (Andrew Winton, JE '01), who remains on the farm to face his father's new wife, Abbie (Christina Paraskvopoulous, SM '99), and to preserve his right to the farm and his inheritance. But Abbie has other plans for Eben and his father, and consciously or unconsciously, she brings tragedy into all of their lives, including her own.

The first act is dominated by the two older brothers, Simeon (Jeremy Strong, TC '01) and Peter (Louis Cancelmi, SY '00), going about their daily chores, literally hauling rocks from one side of the stage to the other. Strong and Cancelmi are positively hilarious as the spitting, belching, bestial pair; Strong gives Simeon an almost repulsive charm, and Cancelmi proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is capable of much more than the seductive, tortured character he has portrayed in several previous Yale productions.

In contrast to his brothers, Winton's Eben is necessarily subdued in the first act. The youngest son, however, soon comes into his own, and Winton gives us a young man torn between childish rage and frustration over the unfulfilled promise of adult strength. As Ephraim, Grigolia-Rosenbaum faces perhaps the greatest challenge: to make his character appear both strong and foolish, clear-sighted but hopelessly self-deceived. Grigolia-Rosenbaum succeeds, for the most part, and really hits his stride in the play's final scenes.

But Paraskvopoulous, as Abbie, is the one who truly steals the show. Equally compelling in both her most brutal and most fragile moments, Paraskvopoulous's Abbie is in turns seductive, manipulative, needy, deluded, stubborn, and forlorn, and Paraskvopoulous never misses a beat. Even when she is merely sitting apart from the action in her rocking chair, gazing out across the farm, her presence onstage is felt. And this intensity of character is reflected in everyone else, from the raucous dancers and farmers at the beginning of the third act to Eben and Ephraim as they interact with her.

Clayton Binkley, SM '99, deserves considerable credit for the production's amazing set. The two enormous elms, which sit like medieval turrets on either side of the house, are massive constructions upon which the actors climb throughout the production. Piles of stones, which form a wall between the audience and the actors, and the farmhouse's simple wooden furniture complete the picture, making effective use of the often-intimidating performance space of the Yale Rep. And the chilling final scene would not have been nearly as effective without Binkley's expertise.

Desire Under the Elms is not a play for the meek, and this is especially true of Lind's production. Eben, Ephraim, and Abbie are individuals in pain, and there can be no calm, rational discussions between them. The stakes are high, and it is exhausting merely to watch their struggle. Nonetheless, it is a struggle worth watching. You can always take your parents out for ice cream after the show.

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