EURYDICE

 

Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl.

Directed by Amy Kowalczuk. Movement Director Michelle Norris. Set design and construction by Simon Grist. Costume Designer: Leah Ridley. Lighting design Jennifer Wright.Vocalist Eleanna Stavnanoudaki with sound effects from Artlist. Production stage manager Lexi Sekuless. Photographer Daniel Abroguena.  Cast Alana Denham-Preston. Blue Hyslop, Timmy Sekuless, Michael Cooper, Heidi Silberman,Sarah Hull and Sarah Nathan-Truesdale. Produced by Lexi Sekuless Productions.  Major Partner Elite Event Technology. Principal Sponsor Willard Public Affairs. The Mill Theatre. Dairy Road Precinct. November 27-December14

Bookings:https://ticketing.humanitix.com/tours/theatre-at-dairy-road

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

Blue Hyslop as Orpheus

Alana Denham-Preston as Eurydice

in Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice

Playwright Sarah Ruhl has reimagined the timeless Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as a contemporary tale of love, loss and grief in Amy Kowalczuk’s flawless staging of Eurydice at The Mill Theatre. What is different in Ruhl’s version is the meeting of Eurydice and her dead father in the Underworld, ruled over by the sinister Lord of the Underworld (a chillingly evil performance by Michael Cooper) Ruhl has dedicated her play to her late father, and the relationship between a daughter and her father is a central motif in a play in which the personal and the mythical merge. Kowalczuk with movement director Michelle Norris creates a drama so visceral, lurching an ancient myth into the realm of our own experience. It is impossible not to be moved and at the same time galvanized by every moment of Ruhl’s deeply personal connection to the loss of a deep love.

Michael Cooper as Lord of the Underworld

The tragedy of young love destroyed is achingly palpable in the intimacy of the Mill Theatre. We enter into a scene of joyous young love between Orpheus (Blue Hyslop) and Eurydice (Alana Denham- Preston). The sheer rapture of musician Orpheus and bookworm Eurydice is beautifully played by Hyslop and Denham-Preston. The promise of a wonderful life together is captured in their innocent devotion and shattered by the fateful intervention of the serpent –like Nasty Interesting Man, played by Cooper (Women beware the interesting man with the snakish charm!) A gasp from an audience member is heard as Eurydice falls from Simon Grist’s sombre and elevated set into the arms of the Underworld populated by her father and a Chorus of Stones (Sarah Hull, Heidi Silberman and Sarah Nathan-Truesdale). Classic myth and contemporary envisioning merge in Ruhl’s drama that is part love story, part thriller, part psychological drama and thoroughly engrossing.



Sarah Ruhl in an interview states that she likes a play to sneak up on you. Kowalczuk with Norris, lighting designer Jennifer Wright, Artlist sound effects and vocalist Eleanna Stavnanoudaki fill every moment of Leki Sekuless’s production with astonishment, surprising an audience not only with the twists and turns of the plot but with production elements that infuse the drama with contemporary insight into the ancient wisdom of Greek civilization, its myths and its culture.

Sarah Hull, Sarah Nathan-Truesdale and Heidi Silberman

 

Kowalczuk’s casting is impeccable. An ensemble of perfectly cast actors create 60 minutes of riveting theatre. Tim Sekuless’s father is plaintively moving, a lost soul condemned too soon to the vales of the underworld. Ruhl’s grief at the loss of her father is potently captured in Sekuless and Denham-Preston’s powerful portrayal of the love of Eurydice and her father. As the Lord of the Underworld’s creatures, the three Chorus of Stone women are a dehumanized reminder of the destitute loss of humanity devoid of heart, soul and feeling.

Tim Sekuless as the Father. Alana Denham-Preston as Eurydice

Ruhl’s play, though written from Eurydice’s perspective following her banishment to Hades is no feminist tract on empowerment. It does diminish Orpheus’s role in Ruhl’s imagining and introduce a gentle and loving father to contrast with the coercive Lord of the Underworld Director Kowalczuk while observing Eurydice’s central significance in the drama has remained true to Ruhl’s observance that she has written a tale of love. Eurydice attests to her female identity but she and the Chorus of Stones remain subservient to the lord. What Ruhl and this flawless Mill Theatre production achieve is catharsis by which we are able to reflect on the true values of life, love and humanity.

If you see no other theatre before the end of the year, do not miss Eurydice. It is another example of the finest quality theatre that is being produced in Canberra.