|
HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO FOR LOVE?: LSU THEATRE
BRINGS ANCIENT ROMANCE TO MODERN TIMES
March 6, 2005
BATON ROUGE - LSU Theatre departs on a journey of death, desire,
and identity as its season continues in the Hatcher Hall Theatre
April 6-24 with Sarah Ruhl's, Eurydice, directed by Leon Ingulsrud.
Eurydice is based on the ancient tale of Orpheus and Eurydice,
but Chicago based playwright Sarah Ruhl has taken this ancient love
story and given it a new face. In the original story, the musician,
Orpheus, heartbroken over the death of his wife, travels to Hades
to bring her back with his music. His wife, Eurydice, is allowed
to follow Orpheus back to the land of the living on the condition
that he not look at her during the journey. Tragically he does and
Eurydice returns to Hades. Usually Orpheus, the love-sick musician
who follows his heart to Hades, is the star of the story, but in
Ruhl's version Eurydice gets her turn in the limelight.
"The playwrights of the golden age of classical Greek theatre
often drew their subject material from the rich treasury of Mythology,"
says Ingulsrud, "Sophocles picks Oedipus and structures a play
around the aspects of the character and story that interests him.
Ruhl has done the same thing. She has chosen a mythological character,
one who is often only given a supporting role, and created a play
around the aspects of the character and story that interest her."
Ruhl, one of America's hottest new playwrights, has won numerous
awards and has had her growing repertoire of plays performed across
the country and abroad attracting admirers both near and far.
Ingulsrud is one of those admirers. He puts it best when he says
that "with a very old story Sarah Ruhl has found a wellspring
of startlingly fresh beauty, and achingly compelling poetry. Rivers
with their sources deep in the primal past of the human soul, death,
desire, identity, knowledge, memory and the infinite puzzle that
is love."
Performances run April 6-9, 12-16, and 19-23 at 7:30 p.m. with matinees
on April 10, 17, and 24 at 2 p.m. The run starts with a Pay-What-You-Can
Preview performance on Wednesday, April 6, followed by a Sneak Preview
Performance (all seats $8.50) Thursday, April 7. Eurydice officially
opens Friday, April 8. Tickets are $8.50 for students, $13.50 for
LSU faculty & staff and senior citizens (65+), and $15.50 for
adults. Discounts are available in advance for groups of 10 or more.
All performance dates and times are subject to change. More information
is available at (225) 578-3527.
|
