CATERPILLAR ARCH – ⭐⭐⭐
The Drama
It’s love at first sight in Hadestown.
Orpheus (Noah Mullins) is a poet and a songwriter. Eurydice (Abigail Adriano) is his muse. Famine abounds and the young lovers live in poverty. But there’s warmth to be found in the Hadestown jazz and blues bar where Hermes (Christine Anu) plays master of ceremonies and The Fates (Sarah Murr, Jennifer Trijo and Imani Williams) are her back-up singers.
Eurydice is drawn to Orpheus but she doubts whether they have any future. The weather is harsh and they have no money. But Orpheus woos her by singing about the return of Spring and its promise of better times.
Orpheus sings some more to Eurydice and tells her the story of Hades (Adrian Tamburini) and Persephone (Elenoa Rokobaro). His sweet voice summons Persephone from the underworld and she sings and dances with the kind of joy one might feel when you find yourself in the world above. But Hades soon emerges to return Persephone to the misery of his underground factory.
Now Eurydice has a choice. Stay in the world above and believe in the uncertain hope which Orpheus offers her? Or descend into the underground and accept the invitation Hades offers her in return for security and protection?
Eurydice chooses a full stomach over love and, as she descends into the underworld, The Fates chastise the audience for judging her choices.
But Orpheus is still smitten. Will he follow Eurydice down into hell? Will he try to save his beloved from an eternity of suffering? And what price will he pay to return her to the world above?
The Weeping Girl
The measure of any piece of art is how it affects those who see it.
As the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice reached its apogee deep in the Second Act – a tale steeped in both love and doubt – the woman sitting to my left began to sniffle. I was unsure, at first, whether she’d developed a cold in air-conditioned air or whether she was crying. My own doubt evaporated when she turned to her companion and implored her, with hushed urgency due the moment, to hand her some tissues.
Now her right shoulder was brushing my left arm as her chest heaved up and down. I glanced at her and saw that she was not merely crying. The woman was bawling, her face a rictus of grief and sorrow.
“He loved her! He loved her so much!”, I heard the woman gasp into her friend’s ear.
What My Eyebrows Told Me
I enjoyed Hadestown. It didn’t affect me in quite the same way as it shredded The Weeping Girl’s soul, but both the story and the bluesy music stayed with me for days afterwards. As the lyrics to one of the closing numbers proclaim:
It’s a sad song,
It’s a sad tale,
It’s a tragedy,
It’s a sad song,
But we sing it anyway.
And that sad song, that tragedy – which we keep singing even though we know how it ends – kept my eyebrows in a Caterpillar Arch.
For more information on the Australian tour of Hadestown:
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