Desire Under the Elms

Last night I saw O'Neill's Desire under the Elms, with which I was not familiar. Even not having seen an earlier production, I could tell that this one was most likely unusual, as the set was filled with boulders and rocks--rocks hanging from the above, rocks all around, and two brothers hauling rocks as if they were animals. The house is held up by ropes above the stage and occasionally lowered onto the ground. This is not a hospitable land. It's meant to be New England in the mid nineteenth ce