When widower Ephraim Cabot returns to the farm with a wife young enough to be his daughter, tension and outrage fill the household.
When widower Ephraim Cabot returns to the farm with a wife young enough to be his daughter, tension and outrage fill the household.
The 1924 play from Nobel Prize-winning Eugene O’Neill is considered an American classic. Based on the elements of Greek tragedy, it had the audience glued to their seats, watching in amazement as the inevitable unfolded.
O’ Neill set this journey of love, lust and passion in New England, America. But it could easily have been written for the Eastern Cape settler country setting of this production.
Just when Ephraim’s son Eben thinks he’s about to inherit his dead mother’s farm, life throws him a curveball in the form of that young wife of his father, Abbie Putnam.
She’s the new woman in the household and she has her sights firmly on the inheritance.
The theatre was packed and it did not disappoint. The mood inside was tense and some of the scenes were somewhat strong for the younger people who went in with their folks – incest and infanticide feature.
For example, Abbie tricks her husband into thinking the son she’s given birth to is his.
He isn’t, he’s Eben’s.
Abbie is one step away in finally putting together her grand plan of acquiring the farm.
Going see the play with young people is not advisable, as there are disturbing scenes that only adults should have to endure.
Loyiso Malgas is a third-year journalism student at Walter Sisulu University. He commenced a six-month internship with Grocott’s Mail on 1 July.
