Eurydice (Modern Plays) - Softcover

Ruhl, Sarah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1408130432 ISBN 13: 9781408130438

Publisher: Methuen Drama, 2010

Synopsis

An inventive take on the classic myth, Eurydice is by the highly-acclaimed US playwright Sarah Ruhl and includes magical, dreamlike surrealism, lyrical beauty and heart-rending pathos.

Eurydice is in love with Orpheus. Her dead father has advice for her wedding but his letters can't get through to the land of the living. At last one does. With her father's words in her hand, she crashes down a flight of stairs and wakes in the underworld, her memory wiped. How will she ever get home?

With a style that is light and precise, but also wildly imaginative, this play sees Alice in Wonderland meet Greek myth. Eurydice is a playful and highly original take on a timeless tale of loss, grief and redemption. When she received her MacArthur Foundation 'genius' grant, she was given this verdict: "Sarah Ruhl, 32, playwright, New York City. Playwright creating vivid and adventurous theatrical works that poignantly juxtapose the mundane aspects of daily life with mythic themes of love and war."

About this title

Review:

'Sarah Ruhl's delightful and touching meditation on memory and loss, the way in whichwe keep love alive or let it slip from our mids, and the language of love itself.'
Lyn Gardner, Guardian, 06.03.10

'Ruhls's updating of the Orpheus myth is boldly original.'
Benedict Nightingale. The Times. 10.05.10

'Its a lovely play about what we carry and what we leave behind.'
David Jays, Sunday Times, 16.05.10

From the Back Cover:

Sarah Ruhl

Dramatic Comedy, Characters: 5 male, 2 female

Unit Set

In Eurydice, Sarah Ruhl reimagines the classic myth of Orpheus through the eyes of its heroine. Dying too young on her wedding day, Eurydice must journey to the underworld, where she reunites with her father and struggles to remember her lost love. With contemporary characters, ingenious plot twists, and breathtaking visual effects, the play is a fresh look at a timeless love story.

"RHAPSODICALLY BEAUTIFUL. A weird and wonderful new play - an inexpressibly moving theatrical fable about love, loss and the pleasures and pains of memory.” The New York Times

"EXHILARATING!! A luminous retelling of the Orpheus myth, lush and limpid as a dream where both author and audience swim in the magical, sometimes menacing, and always thrilling flow of the unconscious." The New Yorker

"Exquisitely staged by Les Waters and an inventive design team... Ruhl's wild flights of imagination, some deeply affecting passages and beautiful imagery provide transporting pleasures. They conspire to create original, at times breathtaking, stage pictures." Variety

“Touching, inventive, invigoratingly compact and luminously liquid in its rhythms and design, "Eurydice" reframes the ancient myth of ill-fated love to focus not on the bereaved musician but on his dead bride -- and on her struggle with love beyond the grave as both wife and daughter.” The San Francisco Chronicle

About this edition

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1408130432
• ISBN 13: 9781408130438
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 76