Lowcountry Stages

2120 Noisette Boulevard.    North Charleston, SC 29405
843-723-4444

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A professional theater

Black Box intimate settings of cutting edge contemporary work

Artistic Director Sharon Graci
Entering its fifth season
 Price range $25

April 25 - May17, 2008
Eurydice
Reviewed by William Bryan

Rating:   (3/5)

Running time 90 minutes - no intermission

An emotional retelling of a Greek classic.

Sarah Ruhl is having a great career. From her Pulitzer nominated first play The Clean House to her most recent award winning Dead Man's Cell Phone, she continues to deliver plays with a message that contain her unique sense of humor. Eurydice, the lastest offering from PURE, is a solid example of her style of writing and the power of the written word. This is the clever telling of the story of Orpheus, whose music was so beautiful that it convinced Hades to allow the musician to reclaim his dead wife from the Underworld. Told from the viewpoint of the wife, with subtle and blatent liberties taken with the myth, this is a touching tale of love found, lost, found, and lost again. The production now underway at 2120 Noisette Blvd in the Navy Yard, PURE's temporary home, suffers from one major fault, it is underway at 2120 Noisette Blvd. The acting is excellent, the direction as unique as any we have seen from this talented company, but the final sense of the show is hurt by the location of its delivery.

Storyline:  In the original tale, Orpheus loses his wife on his wedding day to a snake bite and sings so beautifully in the Underworld that he is given the chance to have her back, so long as he doesn't look back as he leaves. Looking back he loses her forever. In this retelling, the focus is on Eurydice from her wedding day through and slightly past the fateful moment when Orpheus makes his fateful look. When she reaches the Underworld she encounters her father who helps her remember who she was and makes her choice to stay or go more difficult. 

10 Storehouse Row, the site of the recent Kulture Klash 2 (there are still art exhibits on the walls and floor) is a large abandoned hanger, suitable for building Naval cruisers inside. The front half has been refurbished into office space and one large open area, which is where the production takes place. The problems are that other businesses might still be working (and making noise), there is a constant generator or air conditioning whine from outside, and loud motorcycles and cars frequently drive past at high speeds. This results in many distractions that unfortunately break the suspension of disbelief needed for PURE's presentation to completely succeed. PURE is great at adapting to any space, from their old home at the Cigar Factory, to the church used in the very successful The Tragedian, and they do their best here, but this is a top notch company that needs a home that is up to par with their abilities.

The direction is as good as any this season. By using the back wall of the building to seperate the world of the living and the dead, the space takes on a surreal setting allowing us to watch the spoken action on "stage" while witnessing the characters merely "existing" in their normal day to day lives (or deaths as the case may be). Some of Ruhl's humor doesn't come across as well as it could, but the emotional impact of the performance is superbly delivered. Rodney Lee Rogers, as Eurydice's father, brings to mind David Morse's father role to Jodie Foster in the movie Contact, but he still makes the role his own. Eurydice, as played by Amanda Franklin, is almost naive and innocent, a bookworm who can't fathom her new husband's devotion to his music.

Orignal music is provided by the New Music Collective musicians, Nathan Coci, Bill Carson, Ron Wiltrout, and Nick Jerkins, three of whom have comedic relief roles in the show as Stones in the Underworld. The integration of the musicians and their melodies into the show, along with the numerous other sound effects used, make this production a treat for the ears, if only Noisette was not so noisy. This is a fine conclusion to a very strong season for PURE and does much to show the quality of theatrical work available in Charleston, if only we would stop kicking them out of their homes to build more condominums. Soon no one will want to live in the Condo's because there will be nothing left that made the areas so popular in the first place.

Written by Sarah Ruhl. Directed by Sharon Graci. Cast: Bill Carson, Nick Jenkins, Amanda Franklin Johnson, Nathan Koci, Chad Layman, Rodney Lee Rodgers, Brian Smith, Ron Wiltrout.