Eurydice - by Sarah Ruhl (Paperback)

About the Book

Sarah Ruhl's luminous retelling of the Orpheus myth through the eyes of the heroine.

Book Synopsis

"Eurydice is a luminous retelling of the Orpheus myth from
his beloved wife's point of view. Watching it, we enter a singular,
surreal world, as lush and limpid as a dream--an anxiety dream of love
and loss--where both author and audience swim in the magical, sometimes
menacing, and always thrilling flow of the unconscious... Ruhl's
theatrical voice is reticent and daring, accurate and outlandish." --John
Lahr, New Yorker

A reimagining of the classic myth of
Orpheus through the eyes of its heroine. Dying too young on her wedding
day, Eurydice journeys to the underworld, where she reunites with her
beloved father and struggles to recover lost memories of her husband and
the world she left behind.

Review Quotes

"A luminous retelling of the Orpheus myth... Watching it, we enter a singular, surreal world, as lush and limpid as a dream--an anxiety dream of love and loss--where both author and audience swim in the magical, sometimes menacing, and always thrilling flow of the unconscious."-- "New Yorker"

"Ruhl's wild flights of the imagination, some deeply affecting passages and beautiful imagery provide transporting pleasures."-- "Variety"

"Touching, inventive, invigoratingly compact and luminously liquid in its rhythms and design."-- "San Francisco Chronicle"

"As I watched the final minutes of the Yale Rep's knockout production of
Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice, tears came with the suddenness of grief... The
heroine's arrival in Hades (by elevator, accompanied by a stunning surge of
rain) is memorable for technical reasons, but it wouldn't mean a thing without
this playwright's singular voice... While Eurydice is certainly a play for
our fearful times, it is about every death, every loss, every paralyzing pang
of grief... Sarah Ruhl has looked into the heart of darkness and found an awful
beauty." -- "New York Times"

About the Author

Sarah Ruhl's fifteen plays include the Pulitzer Prize
finalists The Clean House and In the Next Room (or the vibrator
play), also nominated for a Tony Award. Her awards include a MacArthur
Fellowship, and her book of essays 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write was
a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Eurydice, named one of
the 25 best American plays of the past 25 years in 2018 by the New York
Times, was developed into an opera with music by Matthew Aucoin, and
performed at The Metropolitan Opera in 2021. Her most recent book, Smile:
The Story of a Face, was published in 2021 by Simon & Schuster. Ruhl
teaches at the Yale School of Drama, and lives in Brooklyn with her family.