The myth of Eurydice is well-known:
She and Orpheus are madly in love. One day, she steps on a snake and dies.
Orpheus, an exquisite musician, is inconsolable and sings mournfully until all the deities and nymphs tell him to try to fetch her from the Underworld.
His music is so lovely that Hades allows him to take Eurydice back. But there is a caveat: He has to walk in front of her and not look back until they are in the land of the living. Orpheus, fearing she isnβt following, glances back before she crosses the threshold and she is stuck in the Underworld forever.
Thatβs how Orpheus tells it. We havenβt a clue what Eurydice thinks of all this.
Until Sarah Ruhl wrote her 2003 play, βEurydice,β which Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre opens this weekend.
It tells the myth from Eurydiceβs point of view, and the story has a very different slant.
The comedy, says the New York Times, is βweird and wonderful.β
Hereβs what The New Yorker had to say about the play: βExhilarating! 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.β
Claire Marie Mannie directs the cast, which includes Kate Cannon and Adam Denoyer, Bill Epstein, Ryuto Adams, Gretchen Wirges, Leah Taylor and Julia Balestracci.
Previews are 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11, and Friday, Oct. 12. Opening is 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13. Regular performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 28 at The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre, 738 N. First Ave. in the Historic Y. Enter through the parking lot behind the building. Previews are $20, other performances $28, with discounts available.
For more information, call 448-3300 or visit scoundrelandscamp.org.
