Eurydice

By Ryan Findley

How much of the grief we suffer in life is because we can remember what came before? After all, a loss isn’t a loss unless you remember that you’ve lost something. The Milwaukee Repertory Theater stages a contemporary re-telling of the Orpheus myth by Pulitzer prize nominee and MacArthur Foundation grant-winner Sarah Ruhl that explores the connection between memory, loss and grief. The classic story centers around Orpheus, the musician who’s grief upon losing his new bride, Eurydice, is so great that he travels to the gates of the underworld and convinces the Lord of the Underworld to allow him to take her back with him to the land of the living. The Lord of the Underworld agrees on the condition that Orpheus is not to look at Eurydice until they are home. Orpheus cannot resist turning around to see if she is following him, though, and Eurydice is sent back, leaving Orpheus alone once more.

Ruhl turns this formula on its head. The main character of Eurydice is not Orpheus; rather, it is Eurydice that takes center stage. Ruhl adds Eurydice’s father to the cast of characters, waiting for her in the Underworld. The father received a less-than-thorough dunking in the River of Forgetfulness upon his arrival in the Underworld years ago, and has retained most of his memories from his time among the living. When Eurydice appears inside the gates of the Underworld, he works to help her recover her own memories. This act sets up the dramatic tension of the play. Because Eurydice has recovered her memories of life before her death, when Orpheus comes to get her, she has a choice to make: remain with her father in the land of the dead, or return with Orpheus to resume their interrupted life.

Lanise Antoine Shelley is excellent in the title role. She’s delightfully care-free, both when alive and in love with Orpheus and when dead and slowly reconnecting with her father. Davis Duffield plays the distracted artist Orpheus very well; anyone who has ever been involved with anyone who had artistic aspirations will appreciate his hasty scrambling to soothe Eurydice after having failed to say that he was thinking about her three times in a row when asked. Eurydice’s father, played by William Dick, is eminently believable in his love for his daughter, letting her go even though it nearly kills him a second time to do so. The Chorus of Stones is hilarious, providing comic relief. Wayne T. Carter turns in scene-stealing performances as the childish, lecherous Lord of the Underworld, although his turn as a nasty interesting man is much less interesting to watch. Tony-award winner Todd Rosenthal designed a wonderfully grungy, modern underworld that is part subway station and part neglected public pool.

Eurydice is less emotionally affecting than you might expect a re-telling of the Orpheus myth to be, but it is also more intellectually stimulating than you’d expect a re-telling of the Orpheus myth to be. Ruhl trades the emotional punch for an interesting meditation on memory and grief, and director Jonathan Moscone respects that choice. VS

Eurydice runs now through November 23 in the Quadracci Powerhouse Theater. 414-224-9490 or milwaukeerep.com