"Eurydice"

"EURYDICE"

By

Wendell Barnes

Water, water everywhere, and some is there to drink!  Sarah Ruhl’s magnificent take on the Orpheus and Eurydice legend, named for the title female character this time, was handled beautifully and movingly in a joint production with the

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and the Georgia Shakespeare Festival.  The audience quickly realized that they were in the hands of a master director, witnessing Richard Garner’s flawless blocking in this journey through the underworld and various other locations.  Kat Conley’s set design of pipes, valve controls, flowing water and even an elevator that rained inside (!) beautifully evoked the coldness of the underworld, the freedom of the beach, even the heights of a penthouse apartment and the joys of a wedding reception--water as a recurring theme.  Never have I seen lighting design more effective than that of Justin Townsend:  from Eurydice’s death fall to the open sky of the seashore, the mood was perfectly felt in each case by the audience.  I was transported by this play—moved, entertained and weeping before it was over, as I mourned the plight of Eurydice and her groom.  Miranda Huffman’s costumes, especially those of the Stones, also evoked the spirit of the play.  Ivan Pulinkala was listed as the movement consultant—I list him as the choreographer since much of the movement displayed dance motions to great effect in setting the tempo of the piece.  The cast was also perfect:  Justin Adams and Melinda Helfrich were beautiful and appealing as the young couple, and since Ms. Helfrich had the burden of the show of the show as the title character, she had the audience in tears over her traumatic struggle—an overall amazing performance.  Two of my favorite

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actors, Neal A. Ghant and Courtney Patterson, along with a new face to me, Paul Hester, stopped the show as the Greek chorus known as the “Stones.”  They were funny, and necessary as they cleaned up the set on more than one occasion.  The stellar Chris Kayser as Father once again proved to the

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audience that he can play anything, and reminders of Ebenezer were absent here as he movingly presented the father’s heartbroken distress. Andrew Benator’s performance as A Nasty Interesting Man and the Lord of the Underworld was a tour de force and had the audience feeling eerie and laughing out loud at the same time.  I hope to have the opportunity to see “Eurydice” again before the end of the run—it’s the kind of show that you will see different aspects of each time you view it, and it is a brief, intermissionless production that I can assure you that you will not soon forget.  Another triumph of theatre in that magical, ever-changing space called the Hertz!  Do not miss this show!