Features

Anglo-American Eurydice Hits Traverse

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25 February 2010

A celebrated US playwright joins forces with an award-winning British director to present a new interpretation of Eurydice at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre from 17 March to 20 March.

Sarah Ruhl’s bold re-interpretation of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice will be directed by Bijan Sheibani, fresh from his acclaimed National Theatre debut Our Class. Sheibani will be reunited with the team who created the award-winning The Brothers Size.

Eurydice is in love with Orpheus. Her dead father has advice for her wedding but his letters can’t get through to the land of the living. Atlast one does. With his words in hand, Eurydice crashes down a flight of stairs and wakes in the underworld, her memory wiped. How will she ever get home?

Alice in Wonderland meets Greek myth; Eurydice is a playful and heart-breaking American take on a timeless tale of loss, grief andredemption.

Sarah Ruhl’s plays include In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play (currently running on Broadway), The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize Finalist, 2005; The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2004) and Passion Play, a cycle (Pen American award, The Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from The Kennedy Center).

As artistic director of ATC, Bijan Sheibani’s directing credits include The Brothers Size (a co-production with the Young Vic) which was nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre and toured throughout the UK and internationally, his Olivier Award-winning production Gone Too Far! (Royal Court) and most recently Ghosts or Those Who Return (Arcola Theatre).