For the benefit of the audience, a theatrical production relies on a well-designed, thematically relevant setting. This is because a setting is responsible for designating the audience to a particular time and place, as well as creating a specific social or political environment. In some plays, the setting is so detailed and ornate that it becomes a character in its own right. In others, especially modern theatre, the set is so bare that the audience must work with their imagination to orient themselves. The setting provides the structure of the plot, as well as the motivations and sometimes personalities of the characters. But above all, the setting of a theater production is crucial in demonstrating to the audience the overall thematic message that the playwright is trying to convey. For Eugene O'Neill, his set in Desire Under the Elms demonstrates the importance of a home and its relationship to an individual's identity. In Thornton Wilder's Our Town, the set is vital in conveying philosophical messages about the transience of natural life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Something unique about Desire Under the Elms is that it is an adaptation of the Greek tragedy of Phaedra. In legend, Phaedra falls in love with her stepson, Hippolytus, and thus incurs the wrath of her husband, Theseus. What O'Neill does is take classic Greek tragedy and apply it to a rural New England setting in the 1850s. Nowadays, it is increasingly common with adaptations that a new setting stops carrying the thematic impact of the original piece. However, having been written in 1924 at the height of Freud's popularity and influence, O'Neill makes a play essentially about an Oedipal entanglement relevant to the discoveries of modern psychology. The playwright's intrepidity in uprooting the setting of the play and making it tangible in a modern time period shows how essential the role of setting is in theatre. In Desire Under the Elms, O'Neill defines the setting of the play as a character itself, thus reflecting the character-driven nature of plot. Included just below the character list in the set description is: “Two enormous elm trees are on each side of the house. They bend the trailing branches onto the roof. They seem to protect and subjugate at the same time. There is a sinister motherhood in their appearance, a crushing and jealous absorption. From their intimate contact with the life of man at home they have developed into a fearful humanity. They meditate oppressively on the house. They are like exhausted women who rest their breasts and hands and falling hair on the roof, and when it rains their tears fall monotonously and rot on the tiles” (O'Neill, 318). This meticulously detailed description not only personifies the set, but also highlights the important role it will play. O'Neill creates a dark tone that resonates throughout the rest of the piece, thus foreshadowing the tragic nature of the plot. The house itself is: “…in good condition but needs painting. Its walls are a sickly grey, the green of the shutters has faded” (O'Neill, 318). Despite the menacing nature of the setting, the play's main characters will constantly be shown affirming the loyalty they feel towards their home. In one of the most important scenes of the play, Eben and his father's wife, Abbie, consummate their passions in the living room of the house, the place where Eben's mother died. O'Neill indicates that the parlor has not been touched since Eben's mother died there, and the setting is described as: "A room as dark and repressed as a tomb in which the family was buried alive" (O'Neill , 352) .This description refers to the "sinister motherhood" of the elm trees above the house, thus symbolizing the colossal shadow that the spirit of Eben's dead mother left on the house. While it is clearly a sacred space for everyone in the house, especially Eben, he and Abbie desecrate the room by consuming their overwhelming desires there. By doing so in this place of death, their actions foreshadow the tragic future of their relationship, culminating in Abbie's murder of their infant son. The drawing room is a significant setting in the play as it reiterates the tragic atmosphere that O'Neill aspires to. The setting plays a key role in the idea of ​​Homeland for each of the characters in Desire under the Elms. For the two secondary characters, Eben's half-brothers Simeon and Peter, the desired home is “California”. The play is set in 1850, just a year after the California Gold Rush, and the two brothers are eager to find their fortune on the West Coast. As Peter says, "...this is the promise...Gold in the sky..." (O'Neill, 320). This quote represents the American promise of prosperity in the United States. However, it also shows that these particular characters do not feel a connection to their farm as “home.” Maybe that's why O'Neill chooses the characters by sending them to California and leaving the audience with the drama of the three main characters, who feel the connection to the farm that Simeon and Peter lack. farm as her home, despite having been there for such a short time, shows an interesting revelation about her character and the woman's idea of ​​Homeland. On pages 338 to 339, Abbie describes her tragic life as a wanderer without a permanent home until meeting Ephraim. Now with permanent residency, Abbie boldly proclaims to Eben, “This be my farm – this be my buzz – this be my kitchen!” (O'Neill, 339). Much like Hestia in Greek mythology, Abbie has the opportunity to care for a hearth and refuses to give up that identity, knowing what it is like to live without a fixed environment. Through Abbie, O'Neill shows how the setting gives the character not only a home, but also an identity. The farm as a setting proves particularly important to Eben's motivations and characterizations. Since the farm originally belonged to his mother and went to Ephraim upon her death, Eben shows particular hatred towards his father, believing that he deliberately made his mother work until she died to get his hands on it. Defending his faith before his brothers, Eben declares: “…You have no right! She wasn't your mom! It was his farm! Didn't he steal it from her? She's dead. It's my farm” (O'Neill, 323). This attitude demonstrates the particular loyalty and protection that Eben shows towards his farm, and therefore his home. With the farm used as the setting for the show, the audience can witness the dedication he has towards it, thus exemplifying to the audience the unbreakable bond with one's true environment as home. It is perhaps in the character of Ephraim that we witness the most passionate desire for Homeland in O'Neill's play. Although he is absent for a while before returning with Abbie, Ephraim expresses a tremendous amount of loyalty to her towards the farm, going so far as to make his children work hard and (according to Eben) take his ex-wife to the grave. Ephraim explains to Abbie, “They hated me because I was tough. I hated them because they were soft. They longed for the farm without knowing what it meant. It made me bitter and wormwood. It made me old – they longed for what I had made mine” (O'Neill, 349-50). Ephraim, perhaps with age, shows that he believes he knows more about what the land means to a person. He understands that one should not own land forout of spite or by right, as Eben does. Ephraim represents that owning land does not necessarily mean it is your home; it is cultivating it and growing with it that makes it so. Through the desires of the three main characters in Desire Under the Elms, O'Neill shows how the setting of a play represents the place of identity in the theater. Thornton Wilder's beloved play, Our Town, remains a classic of American theater for quite a few reasons, but above all because it is timeless. Although set in specific years, Wilder presents a universal message about appreciating life that connects with each audience member in a heartbreaking and individual way. Wilder presents an archetypal American city through an experimental theater set that would change the way audiences connected to the action on stage. Wilder's Our Town is one of the first examples of experimental theatre. For example, the first act begins with these captions: “No curtain. No scenario. The audience, arriving, sees an empty stage in the dim light” (Wilder, 5). A setup like this is markedly different from previous American comedies, and O'Neill is a prime example. Instead of making the plot and characters less accessible to the audience with a set like this, Wilder instead seems to bridge the gap between the stage and the seats. By using minimal props and having the characters mimic regular activities, such as eating breakfast, the audience is forced to imagine the actual setting for themselves. A technique like this personalizes the action on stage for each audience member, thus creating a closer connection to the universal and individualized message Wilder attempts to convey. This element of Our Town is just the first of a series of production methods used by Wilder. In the text of the play, it is easy to see that the captions rarely refer to the set itself, in clear contrast to O'Neill's Desire Under. the Elms. Instead, captions often refer to the character's actions. The scenography is instead explained to the audience by one of the most beloved characters of American theatre, the Stage Manager. Similar to the narrator of a novel, the Stage Manager exists in two worlds: the one presented on stage and the world of the audience. It is used to help the audience designate the town, Grover's Corners, as belonging not only to the characters on stage, but also to audience members. For example, he tells the audience, “In our town we like to know the facts about everyone” (Wilder, 9). It is the constant use of the words “we” and “our” that begins to personalize the set for the audience, depending on each individual's imagination or personal experience. This writing technique turns out to be significant because it forces the spectator to recall the meaning of every moment of their life outside the theater, at home. The structure of the set in Our City proves to be very important for the thematic message of the game. For example, on the morning of Act I there is a constant exchange between the Webb and Gibbs families. The text shows one matriarch speaking immediately after another, although clearly in the narrative they speak only to their families, not to each other. Since there is no physical wall or set separating them, the audience is not limited to just one set. The entire theater, not just the stage, encompasses the entire city, once again reinforcing the meaning of the term “Our”. The hymn “Blessed be the bond that binds” is sung three times during the production. It is sung in Act I during a normal day, in Act II at a wedding, and in Act III at a funeral. While mirroring the narrative relationship between Emily and George, the song is also used to reflect the never-ending circle of life. Through every moment of life, even on ordinary days like.