'Eurydice' doesn't quite reach its audience

Several days later, I am still not sure what to make of Ten Thousand Things' production of "Eurydice." The Sarah Ruhl work was the hot play off-Broadway last summer, and with good reason. Ruhl uses the ancient myth of "Orpheus" in a totally fresh way to explore loss and the fragility of memory -- high-concept stuff that continues to reveal itself through meditation.

 

What puzzles me, though, is why Ten Thousand Things thought this delicate and intimate play would do well in a raucous community center, with a constantly migrating audience whose interest level waxed and waned.

 

The troupe's work is generally so articulate in its intentions that viewers who have little theater experience find themselves transfixed. With "Eurydice," the reaction is far less certain, despite a production directed by Larissa Kokernot that milks broad humor and burlesque from its performers.

 

In legend, Eurydice died shortly after marrying Orpheus, a reputed musical genius. So agonized over his beloved was Orpheus that his haunting songs reached the Underworld. Hades gave him a chance to recover Eurydice with the caveat that as they were returning to life, Orpheus could not look back. He erred, and she died a second time.

 

Ruhl uses these "facts" to ruminate on Eurydice's day in Hell, as it were. She meets her deceased father, whom she does not instantly recognize, and then embarks with him on a series of conversations about their past together, rebuilding memories that have evaporated with death. This convention lets the playwright effectively communicate the cleft between our capacity while alive to stoke history with each other, and the fading recollections of those who have passed.

 

As deep as these themes are, it surprised me how cool and distant the play felt in Kokernot's staging. Actor Steve Hendrickson as the father and Sonja Parks as Eurydice find a workable chemistry. Hendrickson is particularly good in communicating the intrinsic melancholy of memory. Leif Jurgensen portrays the instigator of Eurydice's demise with two distinct personalities -- one not quite suave enough, the other manic. Marc Halsey is blandly likable as Orpheus.

 

In a quiet, focused viewing, this production might reach deeper into the heart. I would hope so, for Ruhl has a lot to say.

 

Graydon Royce • 612-673-7299