Eurydice

     The first quote I would choose to put on our publicity poster is "I didn't know an arguement should be interesting. I thought it should be right or wrong." Orpheus says this in The First Movement on page 213. I chose this quote because I think this encapsulates perfectly what I believe Sarah Ruhl's entire point to be in writing this play. Eurydice is filled with mirrors and parallels. A Nasty Interesting Man also happens to be played by the same actor who plays The Lord of the Underworld. Both Eurydice and Orpheus get frustrated when they both enter the underworld and stand on the things they are trying to read. Eurydice is separated by her father, and Sarah Ruhl was also struggling with losing her father in real life. The underworld and overworld look the same, yet hold entirely different feelings. On a very basic level, the fact that the Greek myth of Eurydice is ancient and yet is adapted into this modern, abstract retelling is a huge parallel. With all of that said, I think the quote I choose is a question posed that the play/Ruhl answers. Of course things aren't as simple as right and wrong. Things are never black and white. Life and death, relationships, language, setting... all "interesting" elements that most definitely aren't right or wrong/black and white. I like this quote because if it were on a poster, I think people would answer in their heads a soft "No." Eurydice responds to this quote beautifully. A production based on this quote would highlight the parallels. It would be full of life and vibrant imagery and beauty. It would be the antithesis of right/wrong/black/white. 

The second quote I would choose would be "How do you say good-bye to yourself?". Eurydice says this to the stones in The Second Movement on page 225. In the scene she is describing how she died and how Orpheus looked. When Eurydice asks this question, I think it can be asked on two different levels. On the first level, she means this quite literally.  Right before this question, she says, "I was not lonely / only alone with myself / begging myself not to leave my own body / but I was leaving. Good-bye, head -I said- / it inclined itself a little, as though to nod to me / in a solemn kind of way." As her soul made its journey to the underworld, she was leaving her physical self behind. She asks her question then, as someone would ask a question about a difficult experience they've yet to experience, like "How do you give up your first-born?" or "How do you tell your sister your mother died?" Eurydice is in a very distressful and odd situation.

     On the second level, Eurydice is asking, "How do you say good-bye to everything and everyone you know and love?" When you look at yourself, you did not become the person you are on your own. Experiences and people shape who you are. People, consciously or not, affect and shape your personality and who you are at your core. When Eurydice asks this, she's not only asking, How do I say good-bye to me, but how do I say good-bye to Orpheus and my life and where I live and the things I enjoy like music and dancing and a life on earth. How do you just say good-bye to life - to everything? The struggle in Eurydice is dealing with life in the underworld, learning the rules and language of death. Eurydice and her father have to time and time again come to terms with their current situations. Eurydice is a world where you never know what you're going to remember and forget, against your own will (by being dipped in the river) or just with the passage of time. Therefore, a production based on this quote would always have a sense of questioning, and would force the audience to think of what's important to them, or what they need to make important to them. This idea reminds me of Ben Watt's 100. What memory do you choose to relive for eternity? In Eurydice, the audience should leave with an urgency to discover what they hold as important, and maybe realize that the things they currently view as important, aren't.