eurydice

Written in 2004, Eurydice  takes the classic myth of Orpheus and changes the perspective so that we experience the story from the point of view of Eurydice.  In the original tale, Orpheus is grief-stricken when Eurydice dies and so he dares to travel to the underworld where he uses his gift of music to charm the lord of the underworld. Orpheus is allowed to escort Eurydice back to the land of the living on the condition that he walk in front of her without looking back. Unfortunately, he turns around just prior to reaching their destination and Eurydice is hurled back to the underworld. With Eurydice,  we experience themes of love, loss, and redemption, all through the perspective of Eurydice. We have the opportunity to travel to the land of the dead, and hear the language of stones. Eurydice describes the process of dying, and transitioning to this new persona:

“I was not lonely / only alone with myself / begging myself not to leave my own body… How do you say goodbye to yourself?”

Yet this is not a dark, depressive world; Sarah Ruhl creates a tale steeped in metaphor and wondrous images. In the notes to the play, Ruhl writes: “The underworld should resemble the world of Alice in Wonderland more than it resembles Hades.” The play also has some intriguing stage directions. Ruhl comments:

“I remember a producer once paging through ‘Eurydice’ and saying, ‘This is impossible to do. There’s a raining elevator and in the stage direction it says that he throws her up into the sky.’ And I said, ‘Oh, well, this is all just literary suggestion and it’s all just trafficking in metaphor.’ He throws her up into the sky as a gesture. A raining elevator could be a sound cue and a light cue. It could be a child with a bucket pouring water. I’m always intrigued by how you put up the same play in a black box or in a site specific way.”

“I am a performance maker that thrives in highly collaborative settings. I love creating messy rehearsal environments where there are way too many ideas getting thrown against a wall. I love processes that allow for a lot of failure. When I read ‘Eurydice‘, I feel the generosity, openness and terror of the work. I am inundated with images. The play makes me dream more spectacularly… ‘Eurydice’ is a playground. There are no rules. The openness is terrifying. The feelings are on the sleeve. Sarah Ruhl has written something that not only has room for collaborators, but demands that we bring all of our tricks to the table. The work asks us to flex our imaginations in profound and difficult ways, to imagine the world she introduces through our own lenses, experiences and sensibilities. ‘Eurydice’ asks us to create a distinct world for the characters, and the rules of the world are limitless. With this freedom, comes terror. And opportunity. And the hope that we create a home for the story to be told in all of it’s complexity and power… dreaming into this play makes me feel like my imagination needs to be wildly nimble. Wildly artful. Free. I think this is what makes me so excited to direct it. My work is to dream without limit.”

Kenny Toll (Orpheus)

THE MYTH

There are a few versions of the Orpheus myth, but perhaps one of the most famous is from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, written approximately 8 A.D. In Ovid’s story, Eurydice and Orpheus are married, yet there are strange portents at their wedding. The torches refused to light, and when Eurydice was walking through the grass she was bitten on the ankle by a snake. She died moments later. Orpheus, renowned for his music, summoned the lord of the underworld with a poignant song, asking that he might retrieve Eurydice from the depths below.

The Furies wept at his song; and Orpheus was granted his wish. There was only one condition: he must walk with his eyes forward through the Underworld and not look back at Eurydice. He must trust that she will follow. When he neared the entrance to the land of the living, he feared Eurydice was no longer behind him.

So he turned around: and Eurydice was hurled back into the underworld. Orpheus tried in vain to appeal to the lord of the Underworld once again to no avail: Eurydice was gone.