Publisher Description

"Eurydice is a luminous retelling of the Orpheus myth fromhis 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 loveand loss—where both author and audience swim in the magical, sometimesmenacing, and always thrilling flow of the unconscious… Ruhl'stheatrical voice is reticent and daring, accurate and outlandish." —JohnLahr, New YorkerA reimagining of the classic myth ofOrpheus through the eyes of its heroine. Dying too young on her weddingday, Eurydice journeys to the underworld, where she reunites with herbeloved father and struggles to recover lost memories of her husband andthe world she left behind.

Author Biography

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.

Review

'The most moving exploration of the theme of loss that the American theater has produced' * New York Times *
'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' * New Yorker *
'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 *

Long Description

"Eurydice is a luminous retelling of the Orpheus myth fromhis 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 loveand loss--where both author and audience swim in the magical, sometimesmenacing, and always thrilling flow of the unconscious... Ruhl'stheatrical voice is reticent and daring, accurate and outlandish." --JohnLahr, New Yorker A reimagining of the classic myth ofOrpheus through the eyes of its heroine. Dying too young on her weddingday, Eurydice journeys to the underworld, where she reunites with herbeloved father and struggles to recover lost memories of her husband andthe world she left behind.

Review Quote

"Touching, inventive, invigoratingly compact and luminously liquid in its rhythms and design."

Description for Sales People

Eurydice received its world premiere at Madison Repertory Theatre in Wisconsin in the fall of 2003. This premiere was followed by productions at at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2004, Yale Repertory Theatre in 2006, and Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theater in 2007. The play has since been produced by hundreds of high schools and universities. Eurydice received several award nominations, including the 2008 Drama League Award, Distinguished Production of a Play, and the 2008 Drama Desk Award. TCG first published Eurydice in the Ruhl collection The Clean House and Other Plays in 2006. The collection has sold consistently well over the years, but based on continued interest in the individual play itself, especially among schools and universities, we think this will do very well as a stand-alone edition. Eurydice has also been adapted into an opera by Sarah Ruhl, with music by Matthew Aucoin. It had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Opera on February 1, 2020, and the opera will be produced as part of The Metropolitan Opera's 2021-2 season in Nov-Dec. 2021. Sarah Ruhl's other plays include How to transcend a happy marriage, For Peter Pan on her 70th birthday, and the Pulitzer Prize finalists In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) and The Clean House. Ruhl is one of the most produced playwrights in the American Theatre. Ruhl received the 2016 Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award. Ruhl received the 2004 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for The Clean House. Ruhl was awarded the 2016 Samuel French Award for Sustained Excellence in American Theatre. Ruhl is also a recipient of Whiting Writers' Award, a PEN/Laura Pels Award, and a MacArthur Fellowship. She currently teaches playwriting at the Yale School of Drama. Ruhl is also the author of 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write (FSG), chosen as one of the Notable Books of the Year in 2016 by The New York Times.

Details