The mystical play “Eurydice” is set to open Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the John and Angeline Oremus Theater in Moraine Valley’s Fine and Performing Arts Center.
The play was originally planned as part of the theater department’s spring 2020 season, but it had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.
Playwright Sarah Ruhl set out to “reimagine the classic myth of Orpheus through the eyes of its heroine.” The play is about a young girl named Eurydice who dies on her wedding day. She must journey to the underworld, where she reunites with her father and struggles to remember her lost love.
The cast features Lena Werner as Eurydice, Dean Papadopoulos as Eurydice’s father, Jasan Suwaidan as Eurydice’s husband, Orpheus, and Joe Gomez as The Lord of the Underworld and ‘a nasty interesting man.’ The play also includes a Greek “chorus of stones,” with Aron Gomez as Big Stone, Natalie Cross and Little Stone and Eli West as Loud Stone.
“Eurydice” was first produced in 2003 in Madison, Wisconsin, and has been popular ever since, especially at universities and community colleges around the country.
The play focuses on Eurydice’s choice of whether to return to earth with her husband, Orpheus, or to choose to stay in the underworld with her father.
The original myth’s storyline is a bit different. The most noticeable change is that in the original, Orpheus accepts his desires and looks back at Eurydice. In Ruhl’s version, Eurydice calls out to Orpheus, which then causes him to look back.
The play will run through May 8, with shows Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m.
Tickets are available online and from the box office in the Fine and Performing Arts Center. All tickets are $12.
