Have you ever had the experience of feeling as though everything in the universe is conspiring against you, and it has only made you want to work that much harder, as though you're obstinately fighting against the forces of destiny themselves? There may be no more apropo metaphor for Eurydice - the myth, this modern retelling, and this very production of it - than that universal premise.
The original myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is an inherently familiar tragedy: faced with the premature death of his muse Eurydice, Orpheus is unable to accept the premise that his wife is dead, and journeys into the underworld to confront Hades and cheat death. Orpheus is given only one rule: he cannot look back into the eyes of Eurydice as he leads her out of the underworld. Of course, Hades has designed this test to lead to failure, and so, just as Orpheus and Eurydice are about make it to the surface, Eurydice slips and Orpheus catches her, inadvertently looking into her eyes and dooming both of them to an eternity in the underworld.
In Sarah Ruhl's masterful modern updating of this myth, we instead see the story through Eurydice's eyes, establishing a firmly and fiercely feminist take on the source material that eliminates the idea that Eurydice is "at fault" for what ultimately happens in the story. By making this one change, Ruhl's Eurydice is allowed to flourish as a funny, quirky, if no less heartbreaking examination of death, the connections made between loved ones (especially father and daughter) and the nature of grief.
And as for our production: Advanced Acting is a brand-new course at Lillian Osborne, and as we were deciding what play would be the right fit for a time with a lot of unknowns (besides meeting a new group of actors, we also knew that this would be produced during a pandemic), Eurydice jumped out as a perfect choice. It's beautifully written, explores Greek mythology (which is experiencing something of a pop culture resurgence), and has meaty and interesting parts for every single cast member. Additionally, it has really flexible casting, allowing for as few as seven actors and as many as 15. Surely in our first year, we couldn't possibly have more than 15 actors right?
Wrong. We ended up with 30 actors.
That ultimately led us to our decision to create four casts, three with a shared ensemble, one which primarily rehearsed online, in an attempt to make sure that every single student involved in this production had a meaningful experience. And through thick and thin, this extraordinary cast and crew - working from the start of the year all the way to the VERY end of the year due to many, many schedule changes engendered by the ongoing pandemic - has shown incredible resilience, talent, dedication, and camaraderie, resulting in an extraordinary, beautiful production that truly demonstrates what a group of young artists can do who set out to create the best art they possibly can. This program is already on its way to creating a legacy that everyone involved in this production should be proud of, and we can't wait for you to see their hard work.
- Matthew Blackwell and Brooke Hodgson
