While most classes ease into their expectations for the semester, Fresno City College Theatre Arts students are diving in, preparing for the Oct.
9 opening of Eurydice. Directed by Chuck Erven and featuring set designs by Matt Scarpino, this adaptation of the Greek mythology of Orpheus and Eurydice will be the first of three FCC productions this semester.
“The play we are doing is a contemporary take. It uses the original myth as a jumping off point for the story,” says Erven. Written by Sarah Ruhl in 2003, Eurydice tells the story primarily from her perspective.
The original mythology tells the story of Orpheus, a gifted Greek musician, and his bride Eurydice.The tragedy begins when shortly after the two marry and Eurydice is bitten by a snake while crossing a meadow and dies.
Distraught, Orpheus travels into the underworld and performs a song filled with grief for the ruler of the underworld, in hopes that Eurydice will come back to life. Moved by Orpheus’s grief, the ruler of the underworld grants Orpheus’ wish to return with Eurydice
to the world of the living on the condition that he does not look upon Eurydice during the return trip.
Overcome with temptation,
Orpheus looks back only to see Eurydice vanish back into the underworld.While some elements of the play follow the original mythology, Ruhl’s interpretation introduces Eurydice’s father to the story.
Reuniting the young woman
with her dead father, the story takes on a slightly different feel as this additional element evolves as the original storyline continues in the background.
“It becomes a story about fathers and daughters; about the bond between fathers and daughters,”
explains Erven. “At the same time, while Orpheus was trying to get into the underworld, a developing relationship between a Eurydice and her father poses a problem.
Where are her loyalties? Where is her love? It becomes a coming
of age struggle — the love of a parent
versus the love of a husband.”
Ruhl enhances
this coming
of age story through contemporary
updates of the original storyline.
In Ruhl’s version, Orpheus trades in his Greek lyre for an electric
guitar, and Eurydice’s snakebite
becomes a fall from an apartment balcony.
“It has elements
of the Greek myth, the world of rock, contemporary fashion, and when you get to the under world, it has elements of Alice in wonderland,”
says Erven.”Do not be intimidated by the story’s Greek Tragedy roots,” said Erven.