The Phantom of the Opera, which we saw with Matt and Debbie, was a Christmas present to me from Diane. Desire Under The Elms was my gift to her. I highly recommend this kind of delayed gratification gift giving. You have all the hub bub of Christmas but then you get to “open” your present months later. I believe Susan pioneered this years ago (1997?) when she gave Diane and me Riverdance. Her under the tree treat that we didn’t “open” until maybe September.

We loved last night’s Desire Under The Elms.

The first row of seats at the American Repertory Theatre are almost part of the set. Stretch your legs and you can put your feet on the gravel which represents the hard scrabble farm fought over in the play. Our seats were third row, dead center.

The play ran an hour and fifty minutes with no intermission, and , as an Anthony Quinn/Zorba the Greek-looking man standing in the lobby said afterwards, “That O’Neill, he grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go for a second.”

I clapped hard at end but I was relieved to walk out into the fresh night’s air, away from the gritty set and away from the domineering father, his tortured wife and sons.

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I have two hundred of these to sort through…give me time and you won’t be disappointed.