Myths reimagined at The Mill

Posted on 20 November, 2024

In our current political and social climate – where female choice and autonomy are threatened and powerful women are often relegated to the sidelines – The Mill Theatre at Dairy Road is thrilled to present Eurydice, the strikingly reimagined Greek myth by Sarah Ruhl, directed by local actor and director Amy Kowalczuk.

Eurydice shifts the myth of Orpheus to the eyes of our heroine, as she explores love, loss, memory, the afterlife, choice, fate and consequence. This show is for anyone who has ever been in love, and for anybody who has lost someone dear to them.

On her wedding day, Eurydice dies and descends to the underworld, where she reconnects with her father. As she struggles to recall the love she once shared with Orpheus, the play delves deep into the emotional and intellectual weight of being a woman whose life and voice have often been relegated to the shadows of male-driven narratives.

Rehearsal photo by Daniel Abroguena

The story of Eurydice and Orpheus has taken off in Australia (and worldwide)- with Orpheus and Eurydice being performed as a collaboration between Opera Australia and Circa in January at the Sydney Opera House, the long-awaited announcement of the musical Hadestown (on which the myth is based) for professional production in 2025 and via television programs such as Netflix’ Kaos.

The ACT’s Eurydice boasts an almost entirely female production team. Joining Kowalczuk is a powerful force of female collaborators. It is produced by Lexi Sekuless, with costumes by Leah Ridley and lighting design by Jen Wright. Kowalczuk is joined once again by her long-standing creative associate, Michelle Norris, as Movement Director. The two last collaborated on the award-winning production of Gordon Graham’s The Boys  (Alchemy Artistic) in 2022, for which Kowalczuk earned a Canberra Critics Circle Award for her Direction. This team of makers have ensured  a contemporary and inspiring version with a collective focus on the enduring power of women’s voices. This Greek myth has been reimagined and written by a woman, to explore the female perspective. In the case of this upcoming production at The Mill Theatre, Dairy Road, it has been also created and designed through the eyes of women.

Kowlaczuk (who was just last week awarded a Canberra Critics Circle award for her interpretation of Blanche duBois in Freerain Theatre’s A Streetcar Named Desire) pitched the work to Sekuless 12 months ago and they’ve been dreaming of it since. A year of conceptualising later, previews start todaywith the official opening on the 27th. And audiences are in for a treat.

Kowalczuk states “Eurydice is a deeply personal play for me, for so many reasons. Playwright Ruhl says that the grief in Eurydice belongs to all who embody the work. That’s what makes storytelling so important, I think. To foster a collective space for humanity. To explore things that we will all experience, especially those we’d rather not examine, like grief and loss.”

Kowalczuk adds that “Our Eurydice is also a beautiful sensory experience, with stunning (and exhilarating) visuals, audio, movement…it’s just gorgeous. It’s a tornado and then, it’s the eye of the storm. And it runs for just over an hour with no interval”.

Norris adds, “As a creator of movement, I was drawn to the play Eurydice as it already intrinsically moves beyond the surface meaning of words and operates in deeper image, intangible concepts and imagined spaces. The text is like poetry and rich in symbolism. Most fascinating about this play is its blending of the Greek myth with modern motivations, and especially the capacity to find a fresh angle in an age-old myth by opening the audience’s eyes to the perspective of the female, here the heroine, as she drives her own story”.

Rehearsal photo by Daniel Abroguena

Sekuless says, “A new company doing an adaptation of an old story provides the richest playground for creative development and I believe audiences will see this in Eurydice. I believe our audience’s assumptions about Canberra’s creative offering will be totally flipped and rewritten. This is an outstanding production, of national standing and quality, created entirely by Canberrans”.

Kowalczuk’s final message is clear: “Support Canberran artists and makers. Especially those who do not receive funding. It’s not a secret that the arts are suffering at this time. Our hardworking team of makers and artists would deeply appreciate your patronage and support in this trying time for independent theatre makers, nationally, but also those in your own backyard.”