Desire

A group with no name, no money, and no production history is currently staging one of this season's finest productions. Laura Somers has cleverly adapted and staged Eugene O'Neill's epic DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS with a wonderful cast of Austin actors.

Armed with an actual farm for a set, and a handful of clip lights, Somers deftly guides her amazing cast of young actors and elicits truly memorable performances from Joe Walling, Corey Gagne, Judson Jones, Christa Kimlicko Jones, and Greg Gondek. Adding to her inventive staging, Somers has added a documentary crew to videotape much of the play. Many of the scenes can be viewed by the audience on video monitors.

The Cabot brothers — Simeon, Peter, and Eben — live with their cruel, demanding widower father. Simeon and Peter were born to the same mother, but Eben is the elder Cabot's son by a second marriage: a marriage that provided Cabot with the land that the men farm and call their home. Eben's relationship with the father is strained beyond repair. Eben wishes the old man dead because he believes that his father drove his mother to an early grave in order to take control of the land. While Cabot is away, ostensibly on a trip to get closer to God, Simeon and Peter, fed up with their grim life on the farm, decide to head West to seek their fortune. When Cabot does return he has a new bride in tow, Abby. It becomes clear that Abby is more interested in the land than the old man. A struggle between Abby and Eben over control of the land turns into a passionate affair. The affair that began as a way for Abby to produce an heir and hold onto the land at the expense of Eben evolves into something much more complicated.

As Simeon and Peter Cabot, Judson Jones and Corey Gagne deliver two bravura performances. Gagne and Jones as the two brothers create a wacked-out gumbo of styles that are truly delicious. They are part Shepard, part Beckett, part O'Neill, and part Laurel and Hardy. One can't help wanting these two characters to return to the play after their final exit, or perhaps to see them in a sequel to this one. In Somers' updating of the script, the brothers set out for California to become movie stars, rather than to make their fortune in gold as in the original script. The updating helps provide one of the evening's funniest and most outlandish moments.

Joe Walling as the harsh and unforgiving patriarch of the family, Cabot, reminds one of Raymond Massey in EAST OF EDEN. Walling creates a surprisingly sympathetic portrayal of the father, whose sons and wife wish him dead.

As the star-crossed pair of lovers, Greg Gondek and Christa Kimlicko Jones smolder. Their passion is intense and their performances are rich and multi-layered. Their mutual hatred quickly evolves into an almost animal passion that leads them to their ultimate fate. They both handle the melodrama deftly without going over the top. Gondek's portrayal of Eben's odd relationship with his dead mother is truly heartbreaking, and Kimlicko Jones does a masterful job of taking her character from conniving gold-digger to immoral seductress to selfless lover.

For the most part the supporting cast of townspeople and video crew do a fine job as well. Potential audience members should be warned that it is a long play with two intermissions, and you should dress warmly and take advantage of the free blankets offered. The only major flaw in the evening is the fact that the show ends with an ill-advised, anti-climactic monologue by one of the townspeople, rather than the beautiful tableau that Somers has created near the end of the play. This flaw is not enough to tarnish this truly inspiring production, a production that is one of this theatre season's finest.

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