Love Under the Elms (1924) is O'Neill's scandalous play which, upon its release, greatly outraged American audiences with its themes of infanticide, revenge and incest, which led to the play being initially condemned as immoral. Onilus borrowed the classic love triangle from the Greek myth about Phaedra, the wife of Zeus, who tried to seduce the righteous stepson Hippolytus. Rejected, Phaedra killed herself in revenge, leaving a letter saying that Hippolytus tried to seduce her. Indignant, father Zeus asks Poseidon to throw Hippolytus off a coastal cliff. The main character Abe, who gave birth to a baby for her beloved stepson, is also related to Medea, who killed her children in revenge.
This three-part play, recognized as one of the 20th century. The most mature work of American dramaturgy, it was staged in Lithuania only once - in 1979. in Šiauliai Drama Theater (dir. Regina Steponavičiūtė).
Now "Love under the elms" is returning to the Šiauliai stage, but there is no need to look for connections with antiquity or the wild American West. The play shows the inner conflict of a modern young person, as he tries to live a life other than his own, imposed by others.