A soft homesickness envelops every goofy, existential, and joyful moment in Sock ‘n’ Buskin’s Eurydice. Directed by Alex Wilson, the play can be mindlessly silly or heart-wrenching depending on your mood going into it.
A disjointed couple takes the stage and immediately shows signs of incompatibility. Eurydice (Aishani Chakravarty) yearns for a little more attention and Orpheus (Declan McCoy) seems unable to provide it. The looming fate of the star-crossed lovers is more prevalent with prior knowledge of the Greek tale, but the comedic script and silly secondary characters brightens up the otherwise desolate narrative.
Soon after introducing the couple, the audience is brought into the Underworld, where Tyreike Reid, as Eurydice’s father, shows us how a man can balance overwhelming desperation with hope and love. Reid expresses enough sadness to make up for the stiffness of the leads–who warmed up to their role later on in the production.
In the Underworld, the dead can choose to wipe their memories and they would live amongst the stones. The father, however, preserves his memories and his education. He uses his knowledge to write letters to his daughter, making references to the tyrannical ruler whose commandments make little sense. Remembering a world outside the Underworld only causes despondency for its dwellers, but luckily the father only has to wait until shortly after Eurydice’s wedding before she joins him in the land of the stones. Eurydice’s death is never explained but does not cause much shock and her father welcomes her into the Underworld with open arms and a newly constructed house of string.
The dreamlike atmosphere of the Underworld reaches its peak at the introduction of the Lord of the Underworld (Alaukwu Anozie) who sucks out all sadness in the scene and replaces it with pure silliness. When Anozie is not on stage, the three stones maintain his silliness. Several moments throughout the short hour-and-a-half production are glittered with humour as the Stones make funny faces and mock each other in silence as the other cast members act around them. As an ensemble, Kate Duggan, Olivia Little, and Victoria Ricciardelli have a strong dynamic, but each stone brings their own version of the role into their performance.
Without a wife, Orpheus is determined to bring her back and his quest, which should have been dripping with sadness, feels one-sided and desperate–especially when Eurydice and her father are happily telling stories about the past and reading books together. Orpheus’ existential monologue sparks more giggles than tears and the question of their genuine desire to be reunited is questionable.
As their last performance of the school year, Alex Wilson and the cast of Eurydice induced feelings of homesickness and uncertain love that I think anyone can sympathize with on some level or another.
Featured image by Arno Rsyner Smith.
