Feature photo courtesy of John Underwood
Story by Logan Bowman
An eager audience filled MTSU’s Tucker Theatre Thursday for the opening night of Sarah Ruhl’s “Eurydice” —the first play of the Department of Theatre and Dance’s 2024-2025 season
Ruhl adapted the Greek tragedy of Orpheus for contemporary audiences. She reimagines the myth from the perspective of Orpheus’ wife Eurydice (Moira Cagle) after her untimely death on their wedding night and her following journey to the Underworld.
The many creative liberties taken with the source material make for a humorous and heart-wrenching stage play — namely the addition of Eurydice’s late father (Morgan Broome) as a character. The added familial element is a welcome diversion from the original myth and brings the entire production together in bittersweet harmony.
Extensive knowledge of the myth is not required for an enjoyable viewing, and “Eurydice” holds up as a standalone story. However, it is satisfying to connect narrative similarities between the myth and the play even as the play tries to tell its own story. It is an easy play to follow and even casual theatergoers can enjoy this production.
While the play at its heart is a tragedy like the Orpheus myth it borrows from, humorous elements lighten the mood of what could be a horribly tragic story. Many stage plays struggle with inconsistent tone, but the jokes in “Eurydice” are witty and in good taste, and do not take away from the tone as a whole.
MTSU’s “Eurydice” is a student-led production featuring MTSU dance and theater students in various roles on and offstage. The casting was fitting and each actor performed their roles like they were made for them.
The lighting team‘s use of vibrant background lighting colors within the production is commendable. This helped set the tone of every scene.
The practical set pieces constructed for “Eurydice” seem a little bare-bones at first until the water begins to flow. The set was constructed to house running water, something incredibly difficult to do in a stage play format. The use of water live on stage is impressive, but also an integral part of the play that the artistic team and production team thankfully preserved for their adaptation. From the set piece meant to house a condensed shower of water to simulate rain to a trapdoor housing a pool of water, the water features alone hold the audience’s attention.
MTSU’s “Eurydice” also stars Eli Maberry, Patrick Jones, Jayden Peter, Vanessa Jarman and MJ Learned. Theatre professor Alicia Fuss directs. Every student on campus interested in theater should take the time to experience this production.“Eurydice” runs from Sept. 26-29 and is free for all MTSU students with a valid Blue ID.
Logan Bowman is a contributing writer for MTSU Sidelines.
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