Come See Eurydice! Talking Stones Promised!

When thinking about the quote I would include on my publicity poster of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice, the first quote that comes to mind is: “What are you thinking about?”. This phrase is asked of Eurydice to Orpheus more than once in the play and is referenced another time later. I would go as far as to say that this quote captures a central theme of the play. Upon finishing the play, the audience gets a sense that these two lovers who are“a little bit too in love,” are not as they seem. They appear to be on different pages so to speak and in an attempt to understand the page Orpheus is on, Eurydice often asks this question. This quote could go further to describe Eurydice’s final action of going back to her father at the end, despite Orpheus’ great attempt to get Eurydice back. This makes the audience wonder what Eurydice was actually thinking during the “loving” scenes between she and Orpheus at the beginning. This quote could work on another level in the poster as well. Seeing a direct question would not only entice the public to think, but would encourage this thought process to continue during the viewing of the play. With this quote, I can see production of this play emphasizing the inner thoughts of all the characters, with an emphasis put on facial expression. I could also picture a few deliberate pauses during the production in which the audience would have time to think about what they just saw on stage.

Another quote that would work well on the publicity poster could be: “How does a person remember to forget.” This is spoken by the Father towards the end of the play when Eurydice leaves him and he is left with the pain of losing his daughter. The Father destroys the string room he has made for Eurydice and sits for a while before saying this. The quote could apply to several characters in the play and would give the public some general idea of the melancholic nature of the play. The pain of a loved one surrounds the play and the desire to forget the pain is central to the plot, with the river acting as the solution of this play. I could imagine a production of this play emphasizing on the earnest and eager desire for the characters to forget their past in an attempt to not experience the pain. I would imagine this production to emphasize the importance of the river, possibly highlighting its design.