Eurydice

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More About

• Kevin Phinney
• Sarah Ruhl
• Renata Friedman
• Troy Donahue
• Sandra Dee

In this retelling of the Greek Myth by New York playwright Sarah Ruhl, the emphasis rests squarely on Eurydice (Renata Friedman), the star-crossed wife of Orpheus (Trick Danneker), rather than on her grieving husband who journeys to the underworld to plead for her return through music melancholy enough to make stones weep. The production is set in an eerie end-of-summer dreamscape; a dilapidated swimming pool nods to both Carl Jung’s notions of water-as-unconscious as well as evoking the bygone innocence of those ‘50s romances popularized by Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue. While Eurydice expends most of its 90 minutes grappling with death and inconsolability, it’s never maudlin or mawkish. There’s a zippy rendition of the Andrews Sisters’ “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else But Me)” by the newlyweds; a gilded art-deco elevator is brought into play; and an ingenious sound design (concocted by Chris Walker) transforms the abandoned swimming pool into a stygian catacomb with the pluck of a few lyre strings. Mostly 7:30 p.m. Tues.-Thurs. & Sun., 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., plus some matinees; see Web site for exact schedule. Ends Oct. 5. KEVIN PHINNEY
Tuesdays-Sundays. Starts: Sept. 5. Continues through Oct. 5, 2008