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Classical Voice of North Carolina Page 1 of 2
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<br /> Take Noe to the River:
<br /> Eurydice Meets Her Fate at The Arts Cer wer
<br /> by Kate Dobbs Ariail
<br /> May 14, 2010, Carrboro, NC: The ArtsCenter, although in need of some cash and TLC,
<br /> remains a good venue for small-scale plays, such as Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice, playing there
<br /> through May 23rd. It is directed by Emily Ranii,who is also artistic director of ArtsCenter
<br /> Stage. She is only a few years out of college, but already is developing distinctive work
<br /> marked by clean visuals, clever use of limited space, wry wit, and a propensity toward
<br /> stylization. She has assembled a talented design team (Cecilia Durbin, moody lighting;
<br /> Kelly Farrow, artful costumes;Tori Ralston, puppets)who make more out of the theater's
<br /> facilities than seems possible, and a pair of wonderful musicians who perform stage right.
<br /> Nathan Logan, the composer, is accompanied by Byron Settle; and their music is an
<br /> essential component of the play's success.
<br /> Ranii's style is a good fit with Ruhl's(American, b.1974)tart re-working of the myth of
<br /> Orpheus and Eurydice,with Eurydice as the central character, who makes her own
<br /> decisions and decides her own fate. Ruhl's Eurydice (played here by Jeri Lynn Schulke)
<br /> is a word gal; and as much as she loves him, she can't quite carry Orpheus' (Eric
<br /> Swenson)tune. The play's exploration of the powers and weaknesses of language, in
<br /> opposition to those of music, makes it more than a meditation on love lost to the finality of
<br /> death. For this Eurydice, the specificity of words, and their gauzy weave into the tissue of
<br /> memory, are worth a very long season in hell. Her journey there is propelled by the loving
<br /> memories of her father, a character Ruhl invented. His injection into the myth clarifies the
<br /> concern with language—he writes letters; his suit is a patchwork of letters—and
<br /> changes the balance between Eurydice and her lover Orpheus. The father, movingly
<br /> portrayed by Mark Filiaci, also represents family bonds; but it is the concerns with art and
<br /> expression that drive the script.
<br /> Eurydice leaves her own wedding for a breath of air, and meets Nasty Interesting
<br /> Man/Lord of the Underworld (John Allore). He's had his eye on her; he wants her. She
<br /> takes his bait, a letter from her(dead)father, and in reaching for it,falls to her death.The
<br /> boatman Charon (who does not appear in the play) must have been a little slack in his
<br /> duties as he took her over the\Styx. Not having been fully immersed in the river of
<br /> forgetting, she recovers her memory and herself in the flow of her father's words,when
<br /> they are reunited in Hades. One of the play's charming aspects is the inclusion of a
<br /> chorus of stones—presumably the very stones made to weep by Orpheus' mournful
<br /> music.The three comically stylized stones (Jeff Aguiar, Kelly Doyle, and Julie Oliver)
<br /> provide a continual patter of explanation, exhortation ("Learn to speak the language of
<br /> stones!"), and even encouragement.
<br /> Of course, the desperate Orpheus eventually shows up, extracts permission to take
<br /> Eurydice back to the upper world, and convinces her to leave. As ever, he loses her again
<br /> when he turns to look back at her. Here, however, she has provoked that action, by
<br /> calling his name. She chooses to return to Hades, to her father. But her father has thrown
<br /> himself into the river, and remembers nothing. She, like Orpheus, has looked back, and
<br /> seen only the immutability of death which no language can comprehend, while the
<br /> beautiful music plays on.
<br /> The program repeats May 20-23. See our theater calendar for details.
<br /> http://cvnc.org/reviews/2010/052010/ArtsCenter.html 6/1/2010
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