Eurydice (Ruhl play)

The story focuses on Eurydice's choice to return to Earth with Orpheus or to stay in the underworld with her father (a character created by Ruhl).

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.

The play was adapted by Ruhl for the libretto of an opera by the same name, with music composed by Matthew Aucoin, and directed by Mary Zimmerman.

Directed by Les Waters, Associate Artistic Director, the cast featured Maria Dizzia as Eurydice and Daniel Talbott as Orpheus.

[3][4] It next was presented at Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut, in September 2006 to October 14, directed by Les Waters, with Maria Dizzia (Eurydice) and Joseph Parks (Orpheus).

In the underworld, Eurydice's dead father has managed to preserve his memory and his ability to read and write, and tries to send her letters.

While the father is away at work, the lord of the underworld enters as a child riding a tricycle and attempts to seduce Eurydice, but fails.

Orpheus also sends her a copy of the Complete Works of Shakespeare by attaching it to a piece of string, and Eurydice's father reads to her from King Lear.

In the third movement, Orpheus arrives at the gates of the underworld, singing a song so powerful it makes the Stones weep.