Stage Review: Desire Under The Elms at the Goodman Theatre
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Donning a gloriously insidious unibrow, Brian Dennehy returns to the Goodman stage for the seventh time in 23 years—and kicked some serious ass for the seventh time in 23 years. He stars in Eugene O’Neill’s classic tragedy Desire Under The Elms, about aged patriarch Ephraim Cabot, and the young wife Abbie he brings home, only to have her fall for his son Eben. Their love results in a baby that Ephraim is led to believe is his, and naturally, grand tragedy ensues.
Carla Gugino displays a powerful steely reserve as ambitious Abbie, but the real revelation is Pablo Schreiber, who commands the stage as the tortured Eben—who both hates and loves his stepmom as inappropriately as he can. Director Robert Falls again displays his love for gigantic set pieces, dispensing with the elms of the title and creating an enormous boulder-filled landscape you might see on the bed of the ocean, complete with life-sized house levitating above the stage. Overwrought? Perhaps for some. But this is epic tragedy at its best, utilizing the Goodman’s vast stage to its utmost and featuring three bigger-than-life performances that cannot be missed. A thrilling experience. Grade: A
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