Eugene O'Neill's powerful drama of love, jealousy, betrayal, passion, Desire Under the Elms, is looked at with a contemporary comedic sideways skew by Frederic Glover in his Desire in the Suburbs now at The Workshop Theater on West 36th Street.
The drama is still there even with the comic slant. Very quirky Timothy Scott Harris, as the son who aims at his father's young wife, gives the play a lightness that can be off-putting in the beginning but ultimately works as it maintains consistency. He's part Norman Bates in this version. Baz Snider as the father is fine, and a wonderful actress, Dee Dee Friedman, doesn't have a moment that isn't true whether she's active or just listening. Director Kathleen Brant gives the play a pace that keeps us right in it, and she nicely utilizes the set by Tim Gobeliewski.
O'Neill's work has been rewritten by a talented, bright playwright, and the reinterpretation gives us a thoroughly engaging evening.
