Arts and Life
Eurydice successful at Porter Center
by Will Byers embodied chthonic beliefs in the afterlife. It achieve a fuller effect.
Arts & Life Editor
EURYDICE was a success, and I
applaud the cast and technical crew for
succeeding in a challengingly minimalist
production. It would seem to be a difficult
thing to perform within a set that possesses
very few objects to engage, but this is the
nature of Sarah Ruhl’s EURYDICE, and
the cast did splendidly.
A postmodern rendition of the classical
myth of Orpheus, EURYDICE focuses
more on the title character, Eurydice,
than her psaltery-toting, savant husband
Orpheus. As well, this stripped-down
performance had a uniquely “mod” vision,
as the only semblance of an instrument
carried by the musical genius Orpheus, an
adept Adrian Wagner, is the Harp Lager
t-shirt on his back.
Caitlin Kennedy starred as Eurydice,
and conveyed with real depth the dilemma
of a young woman who is yanked away
from her new husband, Orpheus, into the
Underworld. In a bewildered state, she
is tenderly and tragically looked after by
her deceased father, played with great
poignancy by Charles Yarbrough.
The Underworld of Greek mythology
is not to be thought of as heaven or hell, but
only as where all living things go when they
die. Traditionally one is rowed across the
River Styx to enter the land of the dead, but
Ruhl’s play imagines a rain-filled elevator
that was a striking set piece in Brevard’s
performance.
It was the effective use of water as a motif
throughout the performance that provided
the most cohesive feeling. To mention a
couple of additional moments, the play
began with Orpheus’ earnest marriage
proposal by the sea. Later, Eurydice
fatefully wanders from her wedding party
to drink from the fountain where she meets
the “Nasty/Interesting Man,” an incarnation
of Hades, or Aidoneus, the Lord of the
Underworld. Brian Randall played the
various shades of this ominous character
with rehsh, and their insidious intentions
came across with a jolting intensity.
When toggling between the suffering
Orpheus above and the Underworld below,
the brilhant use of whale songs conveyed
the immense distance and sensation of
submerging. Once the transition to the
Underworld had occurred, however,
I felt there could have been a more
significantly ...dank... atmosphere to
That being said, I was delighted by
the imagination of the crew in working
with Sarah Ruhl’s descriptions. The Three
Stones, who were played by Bethany Tebo,
Kara Ontiveros, and Christie Bethard,
played their Harpy-like part to its fullest,
stoically (and amusingly) posing in rock-
strewn costumes that illustrated what
becomes of an increasingly submissive
resident of the Underworld.
The strongest image to stay with me
was the String Room created by Eurydice’s
father, a resident who resisted the mind-
numbing river of the dead. In an afterlife
devoid of meaning and purpose, Eurydice’s
father lovingly creates a place for his
daughter to rest and cope, and Charles
Yarbrough gave the scene due resonance.
This performance of EURYDICE was
full of well-reahzed moments, and every
actor shined while delivering lines without
error Ifyou went you will believe me, even
if your butt grew sore during the two hour
performance. If you didn’t attend and think,
perhaps, that I lay the praise on a bit thick, I
guessyou’dbetter cough up $2forthe next
performance by Brevard College’s theater
department in order to have some frame of
reference beyond what I offer, you lunk!
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