There is something about ancient Greek stories that continues to resonate with us millennia later. Nearly a quarter century ago, a young playwright named Sarah Ruhl decided to tackle the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice with a focus on the heroine — a woman whose backstory is barely mentioned in the accounts of Ovid and Virgil. Ruhl’s Eurydice, which is getting a colorful and heartfelt revival in a Signature Theatre production under Les Waters’s direction, centers its heroine by fleshing out her motivation and giving her an alternative reason to linger (or return to) the underworld once her musician-husband descends to rescue her.
You probably know the story; it’s been told many times, including in the hit Broadway musical Hadestown. We first meet the musician Orpheus (Caleb Eberhardt) and his beleoved, Eurydice (Stranger Things star Maya Hawke), as lovers canoodling on the beach in 1950s-style swimming outfits (designed by Oana Botez). When Eurydice dies suddenly on their wedding night, Orpheus resolves to rescue her from Hades — a request that the Lord of the Underworld (T. Ryder Smith) grants because he’s so impressed by Orpheus’s devotion. But there’s a catch. They must leave single file and the deal’s off if Orpheus at any point turns around to check on his Eurydice (whether out of protectionist devotion or doubt).
Ruhl’s innovation is to give Eurydice a reason to stay behind in Hades: her long-dead father (Brian d’Arcy James), a character who does not exist in the myths. Unlike everyone else who enters Hades, he’s managed to retain his memory and has been following his daughter (and sending her unseen letters) for years now. D’Arcy James is convincingly devoted as the dad, and he establishes an easy rapport with Hawke. The two are repeatedly interrupted not only by the tricycle-riding Lord of the Underworld but also by a chorus of three stones (played by Maria Elena Ramirez, Jon Norman Schneider, and David Ryan Smith) who act like unruly children on a birthday-party sugar high.
There are interesting ideas in play here, and some hauntingly poetic turns of phrase, and they get a lift from Waters’s physical production — particularly Scott Bradley’s evocative Alice in Wonderland-like set and Reza Behjat’s lighting. (The elevator to the underworld includes a shower of actual water representing the memory-wiping Lethe river of mythology.) And the performances are solid; Hawke glistens as a leading lady who seems legitimately torn between the two men in her life.
But the production’s stylized and absurdist elements mask a certain evergreen, generic quality to the way Ruhl fleshes out her characters. From the young lovers’s playful banter on the beach to the reunion conversations between Eurydice and her dad, the dialogue lacks a specificity that renders their relationship more abstract than compellingly individual. They remain the stuff of myth. There’s also something a little creepy about Hawke’s daddy’s girl wanting to linger with her father rather than reunite with her hubby. It doesn’t help that Hawke establishes a stronger onstage connection with d’Arcy James than with Eberhardt’s Orpheus — who seems almost aloof in expressing his supposed ardor for his lost love. If I were Hawke, I’d be tempted to choose dad over this guy too. ★★★☆☆
EURYDICE
Signature Theatre, Off Broadway
Running time: 90 minutes (no intermission)
Tickets on sale through June 22 for $90 to $172
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