Eurydice is a play by Sarah Ruhl which retells the myth of Orpheus from the perspective of Eurydice, his wife. The story focuses on Eurydice's choice to return to earth with Orpheus or to stay in Hades with her father (a character created by Ruhl). Ruhl made several changes to the original myth's story-line. The most noticeable of these changes was that in the myth Orpheus succumbs to his desires and looks back at Eurydice, while in Ruhl's version Eurydice calls out to Orpheus (causing him to look back) perhaps in part because of her fear of reentering the world of the living and perhaps as a result of her desire to remain in the land of the dead with her father. Ruhl's script has been explicitly written so as to be a playground for the designer of the sets.
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The play had its New York premiere off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre on June 18 through August 26, 2007.[1] The play had its world premiere at Madison Repertory Theatre, Madison, Wisconsin in 2003,[2] and was then staged at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2004, and at Yale Repertory Theatre. The play subsequently has been produced at Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, March through April 2008,[3] at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia, May 2008 (with original live music by Toby Twining[4]), at ACT Theatre in Seattle, September through October 2008[5], and at Belmont University in Nashville, February 2011.[6] Covenant Christian Academy, Harrisburg, PA, April 7-8, 2011. It is also running at Adelphi University, Garden City, NY from October 25-30, 2011.[7] It also ran in London at the Young Vic Theatre from May 5 to June 5, 2010 (with previews from Apr. 29 to May 4, 2010).[8]
The play begins with Eurydice and Orpheus, two young lovers, who are about to get married. During their wedding, Eurydice goes outside to get a drink of water and she meets a man who claims to have a letter from her father. Eurydice decides to go to his apartment to retrieve the letter, but as she leaves down the stairs she trips and dies. She enters the Underworld, where she meets her father, who tries to reteach Eurydice about her past since she has lost her memory. Towards the end of the play, Orpheus arrives to save her and Eurydice is faced with the decision to either stay with her father or go back with her husband.