Eurydice Review

By Iain Lynn

Eurydice was a lyrical, compelling, bittersweet journey. Kate Stamoulis and Molly Ketcheson, the directors, brought Sarah Ruhl’s abstract retelling to life through not only the excellent ensemble of their cast, but also through the live band with whom the actors shared the stage. The band (Ellie Trace, Bryn Jackson-Farrer and Mairi Small) weren’t simply there to provide a soundtrack to the play, but they played a vital role in the story telling of the piece.

 Eurydice recasts the ancient myth from the eyes of Orpheus’ loving and extremely dead wife, Fiona Lock shone as the deceased, her performance, like the play in general, was at its best when embracing the more unusual aspects of the play. At first I was hesitant about the excitement of a play from Eurydice’s eyes, I thought what does she do but die and be stared at – but the production soon showed there was more to her story than sitting about the Underworld.

After her untimely death, Eurydice is greeted by one of the many highlights of the show, the Stones (Mhairi Clare Lynch, Heather Tiernan, Charles Vivian) shone as simultaneously comedic and darkly brutal to the dead, the stones were uncaring and flinty, in short, they were stones. The play’s antagonist was a perfect modern horror, a slimy, petulant, “Nasty Interesting Man” (as the programme calls him), whose hounding of Eurydice is executed by Jamie Cizej.

Eurydice is less of a story of romance, than a story of familial love and the relationship between Eurydice and her father. That is not to say there are not moments of romance; the play opens on a tender scene between Lock and Orpheus, played by Marcus Judd who was a delight throughout the show, especially in his moments of blind arrogance as the self-important musician. However, the relationship central to the play is Eurydice’s and her father (Sam Mason, who played such a perfect image of a father I had to check he wasn’t secretly a middle aged dad) in Hades, Mason and Lock’s interactions are the emotional heart of the play, a father helps his daughter remember just who she is and was.

Eurydice was a compelling, bittersweet, lyrical journey. Its ending, a bleak scene of Eurydice, her father, and Orpheus all laying together in the blind relief of death, whilst the sound of breaking waves sound was a fittingly striking scene for a striking play.

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