S tu dy Guide
Eurydice
California’s Home for the Classics
By Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Julia Rodriguez-Elliott
and Geoff Elliott
Mar 9 – May 19
California’s Home for the Classics
Eurydice
Study Guide Table of Contents
3
Eurydice: Characters
4
About the Play: Synopsis
5
Sarah Ruhl: Biography
6
Orpheus and Eurydice: A Brief Synopsis of the Myth
7Themes: A Poet’s Prose Influences Playwright Sarah Ruhl
9
Motifs in the Play
11 Questions for Discussion
13 Eurydice: Resource Guide
23 About Theatre Arts
24 About A Noise Within
A NOISE WITHIN’S EDUCATION PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY:
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Judith A. Fong, The Green Foundation, Terry & Jeanie Kay, The Kiwanis Club of Glendale,
John K. & Barbara Lawrence, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Metropolitan Associates, Terri Murray,
National Endowment for the Arts: Shakespeare for a New Generation, The Kenneth T. & Eileen L. Norris Foundation,
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Rotary Club of Pasadena, The Shubert Foundation, The Steinmetz Foundation, James & Trevessa Terrile,
Tournament of Roses Foundation, Wells Fargo Foundation, WWW Foundation
2 A Noise Within 2012/13 Repertory Season
Eurydice: Characters
Eurydice
Orpheus
A beautiful, intelligent young
woman; in love with Orpheus.
A charming, gifted musician;
in love with Eurydice.
The Lord of
the Underworld
A Nasty
Interesting Man
A pesky but powerful child,
played by the same actor as
A Nasty Interesting Man.
His name says it all…
Her Father
Eurydice’s father; already dead
and resides in the Underworld;
adores Eurydice.
Big Stone
A Chorus of Stones
Impassive and cold; this trio
resides in the Underworld
with the deceased.
Loud Stone
Little Stone
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About the Play: Synopsis
Orpheus and Eurydice, a young couple, profess
their love to each other. Orpheus tries to teach Eurydice
a melody from a song he wrote for her, but Eurydice
cannot feel the rhythm. She prefers reading to music.
However, she promises to always remember the
melody. Orpheus ties a string around her fourth finger
so that she will never forget his love.
Eurydice’s Father, who is dead, reads a letter full of
advice for his daughter. He tells her that he is one of the
few people in the underworld who still remember how
to read and write. He drops the letter in a mail slot and
imagines his daughter’s wedding day.
After wandering away from her wedding party,
Eurydice stands before a water pump and wishes there
were more interesting guests. The Nasty Interesting
Man appears and invites her to a party with more
interesting people, but Eurydice declines. However,
he returns again and entices her with a letter from her
father, which he claims got delivered to his address by
mistake. Reluctantly, Eurydice follows the man into his
apartment. The man professes his love to Eurydice.
She steals the letter from him and runs towards the
stairs. She trips, falls down a flight of six hundred stairs,
and dies.
At the entrance of the underworld, a chorus of stones
announces Eurydice’s arrival. Carrying an umbrella and
a suitcase, Eurydice is bewildered and transitions from
speaking the language of the living to the language
of dead people, the language of stones. She imagines
taking a trip by train. Eurydice’s father meets her. She
does not recognize him. He pretends to be the porter
of the train and builds her a room made of string and
invites her in. In the land of the living, Orpheus writes
letters and music to Eurydice. Eurydice receives the
letters and a book but does not know how to read
them. Eurydice’s Father reads her Orpheus’ letters and
teaches her what the words are. She and her father
share stories and memories.
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When they start to remember music by singing, the
stones become disturbed. They command Eurydice’s
father to stop singing and go back to work. While
Eurydice is alone, a child, the Lord of the Underworld,
comes by on his tricycle. He checks to see if Eurydice is
comfortable and informs her that rooms and fathers are
not allowed in the underworld. He threatens to dip her
in the river again.
Eurydice tells her father about her memories of
Orpheus. Meanwhile, Orpheus devises a plan to get to
the underworld by singing. He writes her a letter which
she receives and can read. Orpheus sings his way to the
gates of hell and knocks. The Lord of the Underworld,
still a child, greets Orpheus. Orpheus asks what he
must do to have Eurydice go with him. The Lord of the
Underworld tells him to start walking home without
looking back under any circumstances.
Eurydice hears her husband at the gate and wants
to go with him, but is concerned to leave her father
behind. Her father reassures her and urges her to go
with Orpheus. He leaves her with one final piece of
advice — Orpheus cannot turn around to see her, so she
must not make any sound. She is afraid and uncertain
but she follows behind Orpheus. They walk for awhile,
but then Eurydice decides to catch up to Orpheus. She
calls Orpheus’ name questioningly and he looks back,
breaking the terms of the contract.
Eurydice returns to the underworld, only to find that
her string room has been dismantled and her Father
has dipped himself in the river of forgetfulness. The
Lord of the Underworld, now grown, and tells Eurydice
he has chosen her as his bride. She asks for a moment
to prepare herself and writes a letter to Orpheus,
places it on the ground, and dips herself in the
river. Orpheus arrives in the underworld, recognizes
Eurydice, and goes to her. It rains on him and he
forgets. He finds her letter but cannot read it. ❖
About the Playwright: Sarah Ruhl
List of Works
2001
• Melancholy Play
2001
• Lady With the Lap Dog
• Anna Around the Neck
2002
• Virtual Meditations #1
2003
• Passion Play
2003
• Eurydice
2003
• Late: a cowboy song
2004
• The Clean House
2006
• Demeter in the City
2007
• Dead Man’s Cell Phone
2009
• In the Next Room or the
vibrator play
2010
• Orlando
2011
• Stage Kiss
• Three Sisters
(adapted from Chekhov)
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Though Sarah Ruhl originally intended to be a
poet, she fell in love with playwriting after studying
with playwright Paula Vogel at Brown University.
Under Vogel, she wrote her first play, The Dog Play.
After graduating in 1997, she did graduate work
at Pembroke College in Oxford, England and later
earned a Master of Fine Arts from Brown. She won
the Helen Merrill award and the Whiting Writers’
Award in 2003. She first gained widespread praise
for her play The Clean House, a play about finding
happiness in spite of death. In 2004, it won the
Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and was a Pulitzer Prize
finalist in 2005. Her play Eurydice is inspired by her
father, who died in 1994 of cancer. In 2006, she
received the MacArthur Fellowship for her work in
the arts. In 2008, in New York City at Playwrights
Horizons, her play Dead Man’s Cell Phone premiered,
receiving enthusiastic praise. Many of her plays mix
the mundane with the mythical and supernatural,
exploring the delicate line between life and death.
Ruhl is known for her retellings and adaptations of
classic stories and for bringing a clear feminist voice
to the contemporary stage. Her work has been highly
recognized and produced at many important theaters
in America and abroad. ❖
From “Love, Death and Whimsy in
the
Aesthetic of Sarah RuhL”
By Erin Neel
In a 2009 interview with Gwen Orel of the esteemed
Writer magazine, Sarah Ruhl characterizes her oeuvre as
such: “‘They’re all about love and death’” (“How I Write:
Sarah Ruhl”). Such a statement is at once paradoxically
concise and exhaustive: reductionist though it is, Ruhl’s
aesthetic is straightforwardly encompassed by her offhand,
if not self-aware, response. What enabled this playwright—
not yet 40 years of age—to garner two Pulitzer Prize
nominations for Drama within a five-year span (in 2005 for
The Clean House and in 2010 for In the Next Room, or the
vibrator play), however, is her specific brand of theatricality,
one rife with a whimsy that elicits belly laughs moments
before catapulting the audience member or reader into
stinging, unwitting despair. In anachronistic postmodern
fashion, Ruhl looks to the past, appropriating myths and
theatrical genres to reinvent them in the present, and in so
doing, demonstrates the hallmarks of her writing, namely an
economy of poetic language reflected in both dialogue and
stage directions alike; a utilization of tableaux and scripted
imagery; and extremity of emotional juxtaposition.
A two-time graduate of Brown University where she
received her BA in English and her MFA in Playwriting,
Ruhl became a MacArthur Fellow in 2006. The Pulitzer
Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel served as her thesis
adviser and mentor while Ruhl was at Brown and recalls
being immediately struck by the burgeoning writer’s
ability to move her reader: charged with writing a play
featuring a central character of a dog, Ruhl detailed the
dog’s realization that its master had passed away and was
not to return home, employing Japanese Kabuki stage
techniques in the realization of the story. Not only would
the incorporation of theatrical device mark a decisive
feature of Ruhl’s aesthetic but Vogel’s emotional reaction
to the piece — to her partner, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Vogel
read the work aloud to her partner and upon conclusion,
“both women were weeping” — illustrates the oft-echoed
degree to which reader and audience members alike
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continue to be moved by Ruhl’s work, the title of the
article, “Playwright Laureate of Grief,”from which
such an anecdote originates quite blatantly speaking
to this tendency. Journalists are wont to take a stab
at encapsulating Ruhl, the aforementioned article
demonstrating such an attempt: “Ruhl’s plays are a
combination of the avant-garde, Greek myth, lyrical
poetry, and magical realism, with a smattering of
vaudeville and German expressionism thrown in. It’s
a blend that could easily give way to postmodern
obscurantism, except that Ruhl has a big heart.” While
quirky and gleefully deviating from realism, Ruhl’s
celebration of the nonsensical does not constitute
nonsense: the audience is rewarded for its willing
suspension of disbelief by the
revelation of recognizable emotion
even in the most unrecognizable of
circumstances (“the plays feature
characters who turn into almonds,
elevators in which it rains, plots that
eschew the linear, and jokes told in
Portuguese”) (Goodman “Playwright
Laureate of Grief”).
through a distinctly feminine lens. By redefining the
subject, Ruhl contributes to a tradition of what Miriam
Chirico coined “‘mythic revisionary drama,’” which is
connected to the cultural and historical function of
myth: “Part of the process of transmitting a myth from
one generation to the next is to offer corrections or
make adjustments to the story, and in this way mythic
revision acts as a critical as well as creative apparatus
opening up new meanings behind each myth” (1516). Chirico writes that Ruhl exhibits other precepts of
“mythic revisionary drama” that further speak to the
feminist leanings of her work, such as a “shift in focus
[that] involves transmotivation as well: Eurydice, torn
between loving her father and returning to her new
husband, instigates her own forced
return to the Underworld as she calls
out to Orpheus and prompts him to
turn back to her” (15, 25).
Will Eurydice
choose to stay in
the Underworld
with her father,
…or opt to follow
her husband
back to the land
of the living?
Though the grace by which Ruhl
navigates fluidly from moment to
moment plunges the viewer or
reader into the world of the play,
this distinctly anti-Aristotelian
aesthetic, a benchmark of feminist
theatrical theory, allows for an
abundance of theatrical coups, from snowfall onstage
(in The Clean House) to the aforementioned raining
elevator (in Eurydice). In situating Ruhl within the
contemporary pantheon of feminist playwrights, AlShamma cites Elaine Aston’s introduction to Sue-Ellen
Case’s 2008 reissued Feminism and Theatre, arriving
at the following: “In the view of some feminist theater
critics, the single Aristotelian climax is associated with
masculinity and male sexuality; Ruhl’s dramaturgy may
be considered feminist to the extent that it resists this
model. Ruhl thus conforms to current trends in women’s
playwriting without, however, being conformist” (11).
Within a multitude of feminist theatrical practices,
three main tendencies are foreground in the work of
Sarah Ruhl, explicitly her continuous reliance upon
female protagonists and the consequent bid to
bring women“‘centre stage’” and thus “‘construct
themselves as the subject rather than as the object
of performance’”; her anti-Aristotelian, episodic
dramaturgy; and her emotional point of departure
(Aston et al 5; Carlson 532). In regards to the first
characterization and by means of her feminist
transfocalization of the Orpheus myth does Eurydice
epitomize the feminist practice of recasting history
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“Transmotivation” is defined by
Chirico as being “the creative process
of revising the character’s reasoning
to correspond to his or her new
actions,” in this case used as a means
of endowing Eurydice with an agency
in this myth of which she was hitherto
not in possession (20). It is scripted
that Eurydice calls out Orpheus’ name
whereupon he turns around and “the
worlds fall away,” instigating the final
few moments of their time together
before she descends anew, thereby implicating
Eurydice in the question of culpability, one ambiguous
enough to allow the given artistic team of each and
every production to decide upon the interpretation
thereof (Ruhl, Eurydice 397). Chirico also cites a certain
Brechtian employment of “ostranenie, the familiar
made strange,” in the example of the “anachronistic”
raining elevator that serves as the “symbol of the River
Lethe”: in addition to serving as an example of the
theatrical spectacular and spectacle in Ruhl’s work, this
“ostranenie” helps to remind the reader and audience
that they are beholding a very specific reinterpretation
of this myth and incites questions regarding potential
significance or meaning (25). In this case, the means by
which the River Lethe is represented is not as significant
as the fact that it is now used as a device to create the
central conflict of the story: Will Eurydice choose to
stay in the Underworld with her father, who she slowly
comes to remember during her time there, or opt to
follow her husband back to the land of the living?
As Chirico states, the myth is expanded “pragmatically,
stretching the narrative to include the space of the
Underworld where Eurydice and her father meet
and converse” and within this space we also behold
the chorus of Stones, a “dramaturgical adoption,”
meaning the incorporation of “devices” such as “choral
speaking” from classical Greek drama “to convey the
transcendental aspect of the myth” (20, 25). The Stones
speak a language tantamount to silence, thus Eurydice
has to relearn English from her father. By means of the
various markers that remind the audience and reader
of the mythic aspect of this story, Ruhl undertakes a
“reenvisioning of Eurydice no longer as the object of
Orpheus’ romantic love but as autonomous woman [in
which Ruhl] implies that she is unable to meld her life
with Orpheus,’” and Chirico thus concludes that “Ruhl
has recast the myth to show a woman divided between
two strong loyalties: her love of her husband versus her
love for her father” (27). Language becomes a powerful
theme and tool, the means by which she reconnects
with her father and the letters written by both he and
Orpheus symbolic of the memory aspect of the play.
They are reminders of love and to love: moments before
the play ends, Eurydice writes a letter to Orpheus that
begins with “To My Husband’s Next Wife,” detailing a
list of perfectly inane and consequently excruciatingly
intimate directives that only a wife would know (Ruhl,
Eurydice 410). Eurydice may still be an object of
desire—that of Orpheus’ romantic love and her father’s
paternal—but Ruhl ultimately imbues Eurydice with the
decision of whose love will abide.
Furthermore, Ruhl redefines the myth by means of irony
insofar as the audience knows more than the characters:
the tragedy of the myth is consequently located in
the actor-spectator relationship. In a mere and final
eleven pages of the play, Orpheus turns around and
is separated from Eurydice anew, unbeknownst to her
father who returns to the stage moments after to dip
himself once more in the river to forget the anguish
resulting from the departure of his daughter. Seconds
after he does so and goes to sleep peacefully onstage,
Eurydice returns to discover him, consigned once more
to the Underworld. Unable to bear the dual loss of her
husband and her father, she follows suit and dips herself
in the river, thereafter succeeded by the final tableau of
the play in which Orpheus steps out of the raining
elevator—an extension of the same metaphorical
river of forgetfulness—and beholds the sleeping
Eurydice and her father. He knows not who they are.
The juxtaposition of these moments as each character
misses the other by seconds makes for a harrowing end
to the play: now all are together in the Underworld but
none of them can recognize one another. The
characters, however, are insulated by their ignorance,
the tragedy displaced for the audience to then bear its
burden.
8 A Noise Within 2012/13 Repertory Season
In addition to Ruhl’s subversion of the traditional
structure of the Orpheus myth by maintaining
Eurydice as object of the latter’s love but subject and
protagonist of the narrative, this particular play also
speaks to Reinshagen’s citation of emotion as a point
of departure for the female storyteller. As myriad
sources are quick to note, Ruhl composed Eurydice
in the aftermath of her father’s death, henceforth
imbuing it with the memory play aspect so intrinsic
to its potent emotionality. States Ruhl in an interview,
“The play is really dedicated to my father, who died
when I was twenty and he was fifty-five…I wanted to
write something where I would be allowed to have a
few more conversations with him. A myth exploring
the underworld and the connection between the dead
and the living was a way to negotiate that terrain”
(Weckwerth 29). Indeed, the theme of grief so explicit in
Eurydice is a pervasive aspect of Ruhl’s dramaturgy,
seemingly the impetus behind or subplot to nearly, if
not all, of her canon.
Works Cited: Al-Shamma, James. Sarah Ruhl: A Critical
Study of the Plays. Jefferson: McFarland &, Co., 2011.
EBL. Web. 24 Nov. 2012. Case, Sue-Ellen, and Elaine
Aston. Feminism and Theatre. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2008. Print.Chirico, Miriam. “Hellenic
Women Revisited: The Aesthetics of Mythic Revision
in the Plays of Karen Hartman, Sarah Ruhl and Caridad
Svich.” Dramatic Revisions of Myths, Fairy Tales and
Legends: Essays on Recent Plays. By Verna A. Foster.
Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2012. 15-33.
EBL. Web. 24 Nov. 2012. Orel, Gwen. “How I Write:
Sarah Ruhl.” The Writer Aug. 2009: 66. Academic
Search Elite. Web. 24 Nov. 2012.“Drama: Current
Winners and Finalists.” The Pulitzer Prizes. N.p., n.d.
Web. 28 Nov. 2012.Goodman, Lawrence. “Playwright
Laureate of Grief.” Brown Alumni Magazine. Brown
Alumni Magazine, 23 Mar. 2007. Web. 24 Nov. 2012.
Ruhl, Sarah. Eurydice. The Clean House and Other
Plays. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2006.
325-418. Print.Weckwerth, Wendy. “More Invisible
Terrains.” Theater 34.2 (2004): 28-35. Project Muse.
Web.18 Apr. 2012. ❖
Erin Neel is a current Master of Arts student in theatre
at California State University, Northridge. She received
her Bachelor of Arts in theology and Spanish from
Georgetown University. She has interned with La Jolla
Playhouse and worked with several Los Angeles theatre
companies including The Blank (as a stage manager for
the Living Room Series); Theatricum Botanicum (as an
assistant stage manager); and the illustrious A Noise
Within, where she has happily worked in the box office
since August of 2011.
Orpheus
and Eurydice:
origins of the Myth
Eurydice is in some versions an oak nymph
(dryad) and in some versions a mortal
woman. While dancing on her wedding
day, or while being chased by either a satyr
(half man, half goat) or by another man,
Artistaeus, she is bitten by a poisonous
snake and dies. Her spirit travels to the
underworld, Hades. Hades refers to both
the place and the Lord of the Underworld.
Orpheus leading Eurydice from the Underworld
by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, 1861.
The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is
over 2000 years old. What we know of the
story comes from the Roman poets Virgil
and Ovid, although Orpheus is mentioned
in a two-word fragment on papyrus by
the Greek poet Ibycus that dates to
the 6th Century BCE. All that remains is
“onomaklyton Orphen” (famous Orpheus).
In some versions of the myth he is the son
of the god Apollo or a Thracian king and
the muse Calliope. In all versions, he is an
exceptionally talented singer and musician.
Orpheus appears in other stories as well;
he was one of the Argonauts on board with
Jason in the quest for the golden fleece.
However he is best known for his tragic loss
of Eurydice.
Grief stricken, Orpheus uses all his powers
of music to gain access to the Underworld
and ask for Eurydice to come back with him
alive. The Lord of the Underworld agrees
on one condition: that on the journey out,
Orpheus must not look back at Eurydice.
At a critical moment, Orpheus looks back
and Eurydice dies a second time. Orpheus
returns to the outer world without Eurydice,
but continues to play music. He never
marries again. In some versions, he is
attacked and torn apart limb from limb by a
group of women called Maenads. In Ovid’s
version, Orpheus’s spirit was reunited with
Eurydice after death and they live happily
ever after in the underworld.
Sarah Ruhl ‘s play adapts the myth in a
few key ways. She focuses on Eurydice’s
journey, she invents the character of
Eurydice’s father, and we see Eurydice
make a decision to catch up to Orpheus
and call his name on the way out of the
underworld. In the end of the play, as
Orpheus enters the underworld through
the raining elevator, he does not recognize
Eurydice and cannot read the letter she has
left for him. ❖
The story in brief, using epic poetry excerpts: http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/eurydice/eurydicemyth.html
A modern vernacular re-telling: http://www.shmoop.com/orpheus-eurydice/summary.html
Another brief narrative version: http://www.paleothea.com/Myths/Orpheus.html
9 A Noise Within 2012/13 Repertory Season
Versions of the myth
VIRGIL
She, doomed girl, running headlong along the stream,
so as to escape you, did not see the fierce snake, that kept
to the riverbank, in the deep grass under her feet.
But her crowd of Dryad friends filled the mountaintops
with their cry…
Orpheus, consoling love’s anguish, with his hollow lyre,
sang of you, sweet wife, you, alone on the empty shore,
of you as day neared, of you as day departed.
He even entered the jaws of Taenarus, the high gates
of Dis, and the grove dim with dark fear,
and came to the spirits, and their dread king, and hearts
that do not know how to soften at human prayer.
The insubstantial shadows, and the phantoms of those without light,
came from the lowest depths of Erebus, startled by his song…
The House of the Dead itself was stupefied…
And now, retracing his steps, he evaded all mischance,
and Eurydice, regained, approached the upper air,
he following behind (since Proserpine had ordained it),
when a sudden madness seized the incautious lover,
one to be forgiven, if the spirits knew how to forgive:
he stopped, and forgetful, alas, on the edge of light,
his will conquered, he looked back, now, at his Eurydice.
In that instant, all his effort was wasted, and his pact
with the cruel tyrant was broken, and three times a crash
was heard by the waters of Avernus. ‘Orpheus,’ she cried,
‘what madness has destroyed my wretched self, and you?
See, the cruel Fates recall me, and sleep hides my swimming eyes,
Farewell, now: I am taken, wrapped round by vast night,
stretching out to you, alas, hands no longer yours.’
She spoke, and suddenly fled, far from his eyes,
like smoke vanishing in thin air, and never saw him more,
though he grasped in vain at shadows, and longed
to speak further: nor did Charon, the ferryman of Orcus,
let him cross the barrier of that marsh again.
What could he do? Where could he turn, twice robbed of his wife?
With what tears could he move the spirits, with what voice
move their powers?
Excerpt from Georgics, BkIV:453-527 Orpheus and Eurydice by Virgil,
translated by A.S. Kline, 2002.
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OVID
“While the newly wedded bride, Eurydice,
was walking through the grass, with a
crowd of naiads as her companions, she
was killed, by a bite on her ankle, from a
snake, sheltering there. When Thracian
Orpheus, the poet of Rhodope, had
mourned for her, greatly, in the upper
world, he dared to go down to Styx,
through the gate of Taenarus, also, to see if
he might not move the dead.
Through the weightless throng, and the
ghosts that had received proper burial, he
came to Persephone, and the lord of the
shadows, he who rules the joyless kingdom.
Then striking the lyre-strings to accompany
his words, he sang: ‘O gods of this world,
placed below the earth, to which all, who
are created mortal, descend; if you allow
me, and it is lawful, to set aside the fictions
of idle tongues and speak the truth, I have
not come here to see dark Tartarus, nor
to bind Cerberus, Medusa’s child, with
his three necks, and snaky hair. My wife is
the cause of my journey. A viper she trod
on diffused its venom into her body, and
robbed her of her best years. I longed to
be able to accept it, and I do not say I have
not tried: Love won.
He is a god well known in the world above,
though I do not know if it is so here: though
I do imagine him to be here, as well, and
if the story of that rape in ancient times is
not a lie, you also were wedded by Amor.
I beg you, by these fearful places, by this
immense abyss, and the silence of your vast
realms, reverse Eurydice’s swift death. All
things are destined to be yours, and though
we delay a while, sooner or later we hasten
home. Here we are all bound, this is our
final abode, and you hold the longest reign
over the human race. Eurydice, too, will be
yours to command, when she has lived out
her fair span of years, to maturity. I ask this
benefit as a gift; but, if the fates refuse my
wife this kindness, I am determined not to
return: you can delight in both our deaths.’
1 1 A Noise Within 2012/13 Repertory Season
The bloodless spirits wept as he spoke,
accompanying his words with the music.
Tantalus did not reach for the everretreating water: Ixion’s wheel was stilled:
the vultures did not pluck at Tityus’s liver:
the Belides, the daughters of Danaüs, left
their water jars: and you, Sisyphus, perched
there, on your rock. Then they say, for the
first time, the faces of the Furies were wet
with tears, won over by his song: the king
of the deep, and his royal bride, could not
bear to refuse his prayer, and called for
Eurydice.
She was among the recent ghosts, and
walked haltingly from her wound. The
poet of Rhodope received her, and, at the
same time, accepted this condition, that he
must not turn his eyes behind him, until he
emerged from the vale of Avernus, or the
gift would be null and void.
They took the upward path, through the
still silence, steep and dark, shadowy with
dense fog, drawing near to the threshold of
the upper world. Afraid she was no longer
there, and eager to see her, the lover
turned his eyes. In an instant she dropped
back, and he, unhappy man, stretching out
his arms to hold her and be held, clutched
at nothing but the receding air. Dying a
second time, now, there was no complaint
to her husband (what, then, could she
complain of, except that she had been
loved?). She spoke a last ‘farewell’ that,
now, scarcely reached his ears, and turned
again towards that same place.
Stunned by the double loss of his wife,
Orpheus was like that coward who
saw Cerberus, the three-headed dog,
chained by the central neck, and whose
fear vanished with his nature, as stone
transformed his body…”
From Metamorphoses, Book X by Ovid,
Translation by A.S. Kline, 2000.
SHAKESPEARE
RILKE
“For Orpheus’ lute was strung with poets’ sinews,
Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones,
Make tigers tame, and huge leviathans Forsake
unsounded deeps to dance on sands.”
“A woman so loved that from one lyre there came
more lament than from all lamenting women;that a
whole world of lament arose, in which
all nature reappeared: forest and valley,road and
village, field and stream and animal;and that around
this lament-world, even as
around the other earth, a sun revolved and a silent starfilled heaven, a lament-heaven, with its own, disfigured
stars —:So greatly was she loved.
Shakespeare, (1590s)The Two Gentlemen of Verona
(Act III Scene ii)
But now she walked beside the graceful god,her steps
constricted by the trailing graveclothes,
uncertain, gentle, and without impatience.She was
deep within herself, like a woman heavy
with child, and did not see the man in front or the path
ascending steeply into life.Deep within herself. Being
dead filled her beyond fulfillment. Like a fruit
suffused with its own mystery and sweetness,she was
filled with her vast death, which was so new,
she could not understand that it had happened.”
From Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes. 1904, By Rainer Maria Rilke,
translated by Stephen Mitchell, 1982
1 2 A Noise Within 2012/13 Repertory Season
Themes of the play
Water
Strings
Water is a main theme of the play and appears literally
onstage in the raining elevator. In Greek Mythology,
the entrance to the underworld was surrounded by a
series of five rivers. Each river had a name and specific
purpose: Styx (the river of Hate) Akheron (the river of
pain), Pyriphlegethon (the river of fire) Kokytos (the
river of wailing), and Lethe (the river of forgetfulness).
In the play, both Lord of the Underworld and the
Stones refer to the dead characters as having been
“dipped” in a river which makes the dead characters
forget their lives. In the play the river is unnamed, but
Eurydice’s father advises her to hold her breath the
next time she is dipped so she doesn’t forget.
Orpheus ties a string around Eurydice’s finger and
Eurydice’s father builds her a room out of string
onstage. In Ancient Roman and Greek Mythology,
the Fates or Moirae were three female goddesses
that supervised human life. The life of each individual
was a string that would be spun into string (birth),
measured (life), and then cut (death). This concept
uses a metaphor from spinning, a task that women in
Ancient Greece and Rome fulfilled. We have certain
expressions about family and love that still use string
imagery for example: the ties that bind, family ties,
heart strings, tying the knot, twist of fate, etc.
Music
Mythically, Orpheus is known as the most talented
and famous musician of Ancient Greece. He played
the lyre, a stringed instrument that is a precursor to
lutes, violins, and guitars. He uses his music to enter
the underworld alive. The idea that music has magical
or shamanic powers is an ancient one. After Orpheus
returned to the world without Eurydice, he continued
playing music and singing. In some versions of the
myth, he is torn apart by a group of women called
Maenads or Bacchae, but even after his head is cut off,
it still sings.
The Chorus
The Chorus of Stones in Eurydice fulfills a role similar to
most ancient Greek plays. They comment on the action,
the character’s decisions, and collectively represent one
perspective. Choruses tend to represent the general
population of the story and can serve as guides for
the audience and speak both to the characters and the
audience directly. Chorus members may speak, sing,
dance or move together in unison. They can reveal
information about the characters to the audience.
Ancient Greek choruses originally contained as many
as 50 singers and dancers. The number reduced over
time to groups of 12 and 15 for tragedies and 24 for
comedies. In Eurydice, the chorus is not made up of
humans, but of three stones. How does this affect the
relationship of the chorus to the characters and the
audience?
1 3 A Noise Within 2012/13 Repertory Season
Orpheus is known for playing the lyre, a five-stringed
instrument. Like any stringed instrument, the vibrating
strings produce sound when plucked or bowed. When
Orpheus writes Eurydice a letter and explains his
thoughts of how he can enter the underworld on the
pitch of a raindrop, he is nearly talking about concepts
of String Theory. String Theory, also known as the
“Theory of Everything” is a theory in physics that
attempts to unify how gravity and quantum mechanics
fit together. One of its features is that the universe is
made up of vibrating filaments or “strings” of energy.
❖
Scenic Design: Jeanine A. Ringer
Approaching a play like Eurydice is like trying to
decipher a dream that you’ve just woken up from. It’s
a familiar story written in a very poetic way. For me the main challenge in designing the set was
creating a nebulous world that spans the bridge
between the land of the living and the underworld.
A key element in the script is water. We’ve really tried
to create a world that is permeated by this force;
completely shrouded in blue with a sense of both sky
and water.
Water in the show quenches thirst, brings souls to
the underworld, replenishes life and extinguishes
memories. It is the most powerful element in our
world and the next. We’ve really tried to simplify the
world down to its purest form in order to let Sarah
Ruhl’s lyrical script really be heard. ❖
1 4 A Noise Within 2012/13 Repertory Season
Ms. Ringer has spent the last
decade working in television, film,
theater and other live events. With
A Noise Within: A Christmas Carol
and Eurydice. She received her MFA
from the University of California,
Irvine. There, she took a particular
interest in immersive theater, where
the scenic environment completely
surrounds the audience, and provides
the spectator with an opportunity to
interact with the production. From
there, she went on to work in film
and television both as a Production
Designer and as a Stylist/Dresser. She
has since had opportunities to work on
multiple theatrical productions, films,
commercials, music videos, and live
events. www.jnicholasdesigns.com
Sound Design: Doug Newell
While reading Eurydice
I was struck by the literal and
thematic use of water throughout
the play. My thoughts continually
drifted to images of dropping water
and the ripple effect created by the
impact of a drop on a static body of
water.
As I learned in physics, gravity
acts as a force on water ripples,
decreasing their size as they move
away from the source of impact
in an attempt to return the body
of water back to its equilibrium
level. So too in audio sound waves
will dissipate as they moves from
their source because of reflection,
refraction and attenuation until
nothing of the sound waves remain.
When I met with Geoff to discuss
the play he mentioned the dialogue
being like “resonant poems.” The
power of the dialogue not being
in the literal interpretation of the
words but in their ability to evoke
images, memories and emotions. As
a sound person when a word like
“resonance” is used my ears perk
up because of its direct relation to
the field of audio.
1 6 A Noise Within 2012/13 Repertory Season
In sound terms, resonance refers
to the sympathetic vibration of an
object at a particular frequency
caused by a source object’s sound
wave. For instance, if a tuning fork
that has been struck is brought
near a second one tuned at the
same frequency, the second tuning
fork will receive enough stimulus
that it too will begin to vibrate. As
humans, resonance is important
in our ability to hear. Our ear
canals are formed in a way so that
their resonant structure makes
them particularly sensitive to the
frequencies of speech.
As I work on building sound cues
for the show I’ll continually refer to
the images of rippling water and
the idea of one objects resonance
with another. My attempt will be
to abstract sounds rather than
present accurate representations,
to use reverberations and echoes
rather than the sounds that create
them. Conceptually I’ll try to focus
on effect and not cause. Like The
Stones say in the play: “The station
is like a train but there is no train.”
“The train has wheels that are not
wheels.”“There is the opposite of
a wheel and the opposite of smoke
and the opposite of a train.” ❖
DOUG NEWELL (Sound Design)
With ANW: original music & sound
design for The Doctor’s Dilemma,
original music & sound design for
The Illusion, original music & sound
design for Blithe Spirit, sound design
for Twelfth Night, original music for
Great Expectations, original music
& sound design for Measure For
Measure. Other theatres: sound
design for A Snow White Christmas
Pasadena Playhouse, original music
& sound design for The Heiress
Pasadena Playhouse, sound design
for The Boomerang Effect Odyssey
Theatre, original music & sound
design for No Good Deed ITF/Furious
Theatre Company, original music
& sound design for boom Furious
Theatre Company, original music and
sound design for The Pain & the Itch
The Theatre @ Boston Court/Furious
Theatre Company, sound design for
Girls Talk Lee Strasberg Theatre. Film/
TV: production sound & sound design
for Comrades Landed Entertainment,
production sound for The Walking
Dead Webisodes AMCtv/GenerateLA,
sound designer for Revenge of
the Bimbot Zombie Killers Celtino
Productions, re-recording mixer for
Takedowns & Falls Resilient Pictures,
composer & sound designer for Pure
Shock Value Furious Films. Education
& Training: BA in theatre Arts, Texas
A&M University. Doug is the owner
and operator of Zipline sound (www.
ziplinesound.com)
About the Production: Original Score by Endre Balogh
Having worked with several other ANW productions, my
musical process is very involved with the actual rehearsals. In past
shows, I have been an integral part of the staging — as a costumed
character moving in and out of the action. In Eurydice, that may be
somewhat different (Geoff and I will be working on that aspect as
his direction evolves) so I may be a more offstage entity this time.
Nevertheless, I plan on being at most of the rehearsals that will
involve music cues so that I can invent what is necessary on the
spot to fit the tone of what will be said and done by the actors.
For instance, for any particular musical cue, I already know where
in the script they will go and now it is a matter of observing what
the actors are doing and getting a sense of exactly what music
will be needed — either to underscore the action or to create
transition music between scenes. At the rehearsals I will try out
different musical possibilities until Geoff and I agree on something
right. Then I’ll cite that down and further refine it when I take it
back home. In that way, the process of coming up with music is
very much a collaborative venture and is also organically tied to the
creative process that Geoff and the actors are doing.
By immersing myself in rehearsals, small bits of thematic material
will suggest themselves. Over time, those musical experiments
evolve into my permanent collection of little leitmotifs — musical
themes that reoccur, which I associate with particular characters or
situations. I actually write down very little of this music, other than
the few bars I need to remind myself where to start. Just like the
actors, I need a cue to begin playing and also need to know what
action or line cues me to stop. This allows me to improvise the rest
of the music anew at each performance. Consequently, the music
at each show will always be a little different. Doing it this way
allows me a lot of creative freedom. It keeps the music fresh and
also frees me to tailor the length of music required to fit the many
timing variables that can happen during a live performance.
1 7 A Noise Within 2012/13 Repertory Season
ENDRE BALOGH (Violinist/Composer)
collaborated with ANW to write and
perform incidental music for several
productions including Oliver Twist,
The Winter’s Tale, and Desire Under
the Elms, sometimes even performing
live as a costumed character on stage.
With an impressive list of international
concert triumphs to his credit, violinist Endre Balogh has performed as
soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic,
Rotterdam Philharmonic, Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra, Frankfurt Symphony,
and Basel Symphony as well as several
other European ensembles. In the
United States he has appeared with
the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the
orchestras of Washington D.C., Seattle, Denver, Dallas, and Honolulu to
name just a few. In the course of his
career he has worked with such eminent conductors as Zubin Mehta, Edo
de Waart, James de Priest, Lawrence
Foster, Milton Katims, and Christoph
von Dohnányi. He was the youngest First Prize winner in the history
of the prestigious Merriweather Post
Competition. Endre has had several
concert tours of the United States,
and Europe; which have included live
televised recitals in Amsterdam and
taped performances for the BBC. He
is an accomplished Chamber Music
performer and toured throughout the
United States, Canada, and Europe
with the Pacific Trio for nearly 30
years. He has also played with such
luminaries as Vladimir Horowitz and
Leonard Pennario as well as in the
acclaimed series of 1993 chamber
concerts: “André Watts and Friends.”
Until his passing in 2010, Endre performed extensively with his friend and
colleague, James Smith – Chairman
of the Classical Guitar Department at
USC. In 2004, after severely curtailing his touring concert schedule in
order to spend more time with his
children, Endre rapidly began to hone
his passion for photography. He has
had three solo exhibitions of his work
at the Karpeles Museum in Santa
Barbara. He was also awarded “Photographer Of the Year - 2012” by the
All Valley Professional Photographer’s
Association. His work can be seen at
www.endresphotos.com
Classroom Activities
Myths are stories that are important to a culture. They can give an
image of how the universe works , an explanation of why things are the way they are,
and can reinforce cultural values and social behavior. Myths, like fairy tales, folk tales, and
fables, have many variations depending on who is writing or telling the story and who the
audience of the story is.
The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice has been a popular subject for artists to adapt through
poetry, visual art, music and theatre. There are many variations and versions. Sarah Ruhl ‘s
play adapts the myth in a few key ways. She focuses on Eurydice’s journey, she invents the
character of Eurydice’s father, and Eurydice makes the decision to catch up to Orpheus
and call his name on the way out of the underworld.
MYTHIC RETELLING
VISIONS OF THE UNDERWORLD
Myths are generally told from the third
person. Pick a character from a myth,
folk tale , fairy tale, or other well-known
story and re-tell the story from his or
her perspective, in the first person. Your
version of the myth can be a story, song, or
poem. Minor characters or characters that
are the object of the action might make
interesting choices.
There are myths and stories from different
cultures that involve a concept of an
underworld or a specific place where the
dead are. Some are similar to the myth
of Orpheus and Eurydice and involve a
character’s journey to the land of the
dead and return to the land of the living.
Research at least two stories involving the
underworld from two different cultures or
different religious traditions.
Possibilities include:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
Persephone
Pegasus
Charon
Penelope
Icarus
Midas’ daughter
Analyze your version of the myth. What did
you choose to focus on? Why?
1 8 A Noise Within 2012/13 Repertory Season
Possibilities include:
1) Ancient Japan
2) Ancient Egypt
3) Native American stories
(Hopi, Zuni, Pueblo)
4) Aztec or Maya stories
5) Norse mythology
Compare and contrast the underworld
in each story. What features are similar
in each one? What features are unique?
Are their different levels or sections of
the underworld depending on how the
inhabitants lived their lives? Draw, paint,
or illustrate the differences between the
underworlds of each story side by side
by s
Eurydice: Resource Guide
Books on Ruhl
Research & Reference: Greek Mythology & Poetry
• Al-Shamma, James. Sarah Ruhl: A Critical Study of the Plays. Jefferson: McFarland &, Co., 2011.
• Ruhl, Sarah. Eurydice. The Clean House and Other Plays. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2006. 325-418.
• Bierlein, J F. Parallel Myths. New York: Ballantine Books, 1994. Print.
Articles on Ruhl
• Castagno, Paul C. “Crossover Poetics: Sarah Ruhl and
Suzan-Lori Parks.” New Playwriting Strategies: Language and Media in the 21st Century. London: Routledge, 2011.
• Chirico, Miriam. “Hellenic Women Revisited: The
Aesthetics of Mythic Revision in the Plays of Karen
Hartman, Sarah Ruhl and Caridad Svich.” Dramatic
Revisions of Myths, Fairy Tales and Legends: Essays on
Recent Plays. By Verna A. Foster. Jefferson: McFarland &
Company, Inc., 2012. 15-33.
• “Drama: Current Winners and Finalists.” The Pulitzer Prizes. N.p., n.d. Web.
• Goodman, Lawrence. “Playwright Laureate of Grief.” Brown Alumni Magazine. Brown Alumni Magazine,
23 Mar. 2007.
• Gureswitsch, Matthew. “Wild Woman: Playwright Sarah Ruhl Speaks Softly and Carries a Big Kick.” Smithsonian. Oct. 2007.
• Lahr, John. “Surreal Life.” New Yorker 17 Mar. 2008: 78-83.
• Orel, Gwen. “How I Write: Sarah Ruhl.” The Writer
Aug. 2009: 66.
• Renner, Pamela. “Spiritual Cleanliness.” American Theatre November (2004): n. pag. Theatre Communications Group.
• Weckwerth, Wendy. “More Invisible Terrains.”
Theater 34.2 (2004): 28-35.
• Wren, Celia. “The Golden Ruhl.” American Theatre October (2005): n. pag. Theatre Communications Group.
• Bulfinch, Thomas. Bulfinch’s Mythology. New York: Avenel Books, 1978. Print.
• Grant, Michael, and John Hazel. Who’s Who in
Classical Mythology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Print.
• Hamilton, Edith. Mythology. New York: New American Library, 1953. Print.
• Kosinski, Dorothy M. Orpheus in Nineteenth-Century Symbolism. Ann Arbor: U. of Mich. P., 1989. Print.
• Lee, M. Owen. Virgil As Orpheus: A Study of the Georgics. New York: SUNY Press, 1996. Print.
• Rilke, Rainer M, and J B. Leishman. “Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes.” Possibility of Being: A Selection of Poems.
New York: New Directions Pub. Corp, 1977. 47-50. Print.
Media (Music, Film, Web)
•
Camus, Marcel, Sacha Gordine, Jacques Viot, Luiz Bonfá,
Antonio C. Jobim, Breno Mello, Marpessa Dawn, Lourdes. Oliveira, Léa Garcia, and Vinícius. Moraes. Orfeu Negro: Black Orpheus. Irvington, NY: Criterion Collection,
1999. DVD.
• Cocteau, Jean. Testament of Orpheus. France: 1960. Film.
• Gluck, Christoph Willibald. Orpheus and Eurydice. Opera.
• Henson, Jim. Jim Henson’s the Storyteller: Greek Myths.
Culver City, Calif.: Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, 2004. Television Episode on DVD.
• Haydn, Franz Joseph. Orfeo ed Euridice. Musical Composition.
• Monteverdi, Claudi. L’Orfeo. Opera.
• Sarah Ruhl’s Website: sarahruhlplaywright.com
• Stravinski, Igor. Orpheus. Musical Composition.
1 9 A Noise Within 2012/13 Repertory Season
About Theatre Arts
Today, movies and television
take audiences away from
what was once the number
one form of amusement:
going to the theatre. But
attending a live theatrical
performance is still one of
the most thrilling and active
forms of entertainment.
In a theatre, observers are
catapulted into the action,
especially at an intimate
venue like A Noise Within,
whose thrust stage reaches
out into the audience and
whose actors can see, hear,
and feel the response of the
crowd.
Although playhouses in
the past could sometimes
be rowdy, participating in
the performance by giving
respect and attention to the
actors is the most appropriate
behavior at a theatrical
performance today. Shouting
out (or even whispering) can
be heard throughout the
auditorium, as can rustling
paper or ringing phones.
After A Noise Within’s
performance of Eurydice, you
will have the opportunity to
discuss the play’s content
and style with the performing
artists and directors. You
may wish to remind students
to observe the performance
carefully or to compile
questions ahead of time
so they are prepared to
participate in the discussion.
2 0 A Noise Within 2012/13 Repertory Season
blocking: The instructions a
director gives his actors that tell
them how and where to move in
relation to each other or to the set
in a particular scene.
character: The personality or part
portrayed by an actor on stage.
conflict: The opposition of people
or forces which causes the play’s
rising action.
dramatic irony: A dramatic
technique used by a writer in
which a character is unaware of
something the audience knows.
genre: Literally, “kind” or “type.”
In literary terms, genre refers to
the main types of literary form,
principally comedy and tragedy.
It can also refer to forms that are
more specific to a given historical
era, such as the revenge tragedy,
or to more specific sub-genres of
tragedy and comedy such as the
comedy of manners, farce or social
drama.
motivation: The situation or mood
which initiates an action. Actors
often look for their “motivation”
when they try to dissect how a
character thinks or acts.
props: Items carried on stage
by an actor to represent objects
mentioned in or implied by the
script. Sometimes the props
are actual, sometimes they are
manufactured in the theatre shop.
proscenium stage: There is usually
a front curtain on a proscenium
stage. The audience views the play
from the front through a “frame”
called the proscenium arch. In this
scenario, all audience members
have the same view of the actors.
set: The physical world created on
stage in which the action of the
play takes place.
setting: The environment in which
a play takes place. It may include
the historical period as well as the
physical space.
stage areas: The stage is divided
into areas to help the director to
note where action will take place.
Upstage is the area furthest from
the audience. Downstage is the
area closest to the audience.
Center stage defines the middle
of the playing space. Stage left
is the actor’s left as he faces the
audience. Stage right is the actor’s
right as he faces the audience.
theme: The overarching message
or main idea of a literary or
dramatic work. A recurring idea in
a play or story.
thrust stage: A stage that juts out
into the audience seating area so
that patrons are seated on three
sides. In this scenario, audience
members see the play from varying
viewpoints. A Noise Within features
a thrust stage.
About A Noise Within
A Noise Within’s mission is to produce world-class
performances of the great works of drama in rotating
repertory with a resident company; to educate and
inspire the public through programs that foster an
understanding and appreciation of history’s great plays
and playwrights; and to train the next generation of
classical theatre artists. A Noise Within performs and
promotes classical theatre as an essential means for our
community to confront the universal human experience,
expand personal awareness and challenge individual
perspectives.
The 20-year evolution from a small neighborhood
theatre in Glendale founded in 1991 to the 2011
opening of the company’s new theatre facility in
Pasadena has been marked by constantly raising the
bar on what great classical theatre can be. The move
to a permanent home provides A Noise Within with
expanded artistic possibilities, a greater scope of
educational opportunities, and the capacity to meet
demand and reach its full potential. The state-of-theart theatre includes a 283-seat theatre, rehearsal and
classroom space, scene and costume shops, box office,
administrative offices, and the Classics Live! Learning
Resource Center.
Through Classics Live!, A Noise Within has introduced
over 200,000 students from schools across Southern
California to the transformative power of live, classical
theatre. The Classics Live! education program includes:
Reduced-cost performance tickets; Post-performance
discussions with the artists; Free California standards
compliant study guides; Optional In-class workshops;
and, the Classics Live! Learning Resource Center.
Producing Artistic Directors Geoff Elliott and Julia
Rodriguez-Elliott are passionate in their belief that
theatre can transform lives and better communities.
Both hold a master of fine arts from the American
Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco — one of the
leading theatre training programs in the country —
and have mounted more than 140 productions while
maintaining consistent, good fiscal health. A Noise
Within has achieved prominence among Southern
California’s best theatres, earning 26 Los Angeles
Drama Critics Circle Awards, numerous LA Stage
Alliance Ovation Awards, the Polly Warfield Award for
Excellence, and was the youngest company ever to
receive the Margaret Harford Award for Distinguished
Achievement.
A Noise Within’s company of resident artists perform
classic works in the rotating repertory tradition,
meaning that each individual actor has the opportunity
to perform multiple roles in thematically linked plays
during the fall season, and again during the spring
season. Classical rotating repertory is a time-tested
tradition that has all but vanished from the regional
theatre scene. Rotating repertory has the unique ability
to build strong community among the artists, between
the artists and their audience, and among audience
members.
Through the leadership and vision of Producing Artistic
Directors, Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, A
Noise Within continues to raise the bar for what great
classical theatre can be, establishing itself as a leader in
the regional theatre community.
Study Guides
A Noise Within’s California Visual and Performing Arts
(VAPA) and English Language, standards compliant
study guides are designed to help educators prepare
their students for attending a performance at the
theatre. Study guides for the current and past seasons
are available for free at www.anoisewithin.org or on-site
at the Classics Live! Learning Resource Center.
California’s Home for the Classics
Study Guide Credits
Claire Marie Mannle Editor
Craig Schwartz Production Photography
Christopher Komuro Graphic Design
Rachael Campanella Education Intern
California’s Home for the Classics
Geoff Elliott & Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, Producing Artistic Directors
3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107
Tel 626.356.3100 / Fax 626.356.3120
anoisewithin.org
2 1 A Noise Within 2012/13 Repertory Season
California’s Home for the Classics