Eugene O’Neill’s “Desire Under the Elms” is a dark play about human nature, based on the Greek myth of Phaedra, about a wife whose seduces her stepson, causing tragedy to ensue.
Sting & Honey Company offers an ambitious, loving production of this rarely produced 1924 play — and that’s its largest problem. As directed by artistic director Javen Tanner, “Desire” showcases a fine set of actors who aren’t pushed to reveal their characters’ twisted hearts. These characters don’t allow us to make sense of the mythic nature of this story because the actors are, on the face of it, too nice.
O’Neill’s tricky-on-the-contemporary-ear regionial dialect is well-handled by the cast. Tanner’s stripped-down set is metaphorically rich, with wooden bedroom platforms topped by a white cross shaped by beautifully draped sheets. The design allows a tucked-away sofa to be pulled forward to present a haunted, unused parlor. Hymns played by fiddler Tim Coray, on- and offstage, provide rich texture.
And it’s interesting to imagine the possibilities of the stories that could be brought to life in downtown’s new Regent Street Black Box theater, which in the lobby and streetscape currently exhibits the charmlessness of corporate offices. The alley entrance demands the excitement of marquee lights and other dramatic signage to draw theatergoers inside.
But niceness remains the show’s biggest problem: Without seeing the characters’ dark hearts, theatergoers are allowed to turn away from the family’s betrayals. This means we aren’t pierced to confront our own twisted natures.
The story revolves around the wilderness prophet Ephraim Cabot (Bob Nelson), a hard man who ridicules his sons, Simeon and Peter (Dan Beecher and Cam Deaver), while he forces them to work harder in his stone-filled New England fields.
Simeon and Peter, dreaming of easy lives in the gold-strewn fields of California, gang up against their younger half-brother, Eben (Topher Rasmussen). Eben is attracted to and repelled by his father’s new, younger wife, Abbie (Melanie Nelson), as she schemes to take ownership of the farm.
The actors are too moderated, too modulated, to create dynamic peaks and valleys out of their characters’ rages. O’Neilll’s repetitive dialogue feels tiresome, which might suggest more incisive script edits are needed for contemporary audiences.
Nelson’s Cabot is soft-spoken, rather than fearsome, while his two older sons seem like loud-mouthed redneck caricatures. Despite the heightened volume of their delivery in an intimate space, they don’t convey the depth of their hatred for their father.
Melanie Nelson’s Abbie — in well-appointed costumes designed by Tara Tanner — appears charming, instead of calculating. The character isn’t sharp-edged enough to be the razor slicing through the organs of this dysfunctional family. And she and Rasmussen don’t spark enough onstage chemistry to make their illicit dangerous liaison lead to its tragic consequences. (Recognizing the notes of the Mormon hymn “O My Father,” played during a critical scene of betrayal, launched me out of the moment.)
Of all of the director’s richly blocked stage pictures, there’s a moment when Cabot is lecturing his wife, while she’s physically longing for his son in the next-door bedroom. That’s a shining example of what this production makes us crave: to see the dark guts of the story — that is, all of our dark guts — staining the boards of the stage.
“Desire Under the Elms” <br> Actors don‘t exploit the darkness that drives their characters in this lovingly appointed classic. <br> When • Reviewed Saturday; continues Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m., with 2 p.m. Saturday matinees, through Sept. 16 <br> Where • Regent Street Black Box at the Eccles Theater, 131 S. Main St., Salt Lake City <br> Tickets • $18 at arttix.org, the theater box office or 801-355-2787 <br> Running time • Two hours, with intermission <br> Note • Recommended for 14 and older; mild profanity, mature themes