About the work
Trilogy of plays by Eugene O'Neill modelled on Aeschylus's "Oresteia", first performed on 26 October 1931 at the Guild Theatre in New York, directed by Philip Moeller with sets by Robert Edmond Jones. O'Neill transposes the ancient myth onto the Mannon family of New England shortly after the American Civil War.
Plot
Christine Mannon poisons her husband, General Ezra Mannon, on his return from the war so she can be with her lover. Her daughter Lavinia and son Orin uncover the murder and avenge it, but are themselves drawn into a spiral of guilt, jealousy and madness. In the end Lavinia is left alone, accepting lifelong isolation to bear the family's curse.
Cultural significance
O'Neill was among the first major twentieth-century playwrights to transpose ancient tragic material into a modern setting, replacing classical fate with psychological motives influenced by Freud. The trilogy ranks among his most ambitious works and remains part of German-language theatre repertoire today in Marianne Wentzel's translation, published by S. Fischer Theater.