Eurydice (pronounced yr·i·duh·see), by the acclaimed playwright Sarah Ruhl, is a mesmerizing reimagining of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. When Eurydice dies on her wedding day and travels to the underworld, she is transported to a place where stones speak, the rain falls upward, and her father must become her teacher. While she struggles to remember her life on Earth, Orpheus – the great musician – sets out to rescue her. But the choice of whether to return to the land of the living or to stay with her father in the afterlife is not an easy one.

This contemporary play is an invitation to audiences to journey into the dreamlike underworld together, where the fault lines between memory and reality, love and loss blur into a lyrical experience of what it means to remember. Dedicated by Ruhl to her father after his death, Eurydice poetically explores the human longing for connection.

Eurydice opened Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theater in 2007. The play received several awards and nominations, including the 2004 ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award. In 2018, the New York Times counted it amongst the “25 Best American Plays since Angels in America.”

While Eurydice can be appreciated by a broad audience, it is important for theater-goers to consider the maturity and sensitivity of younger viewers. Some themes may be challenging for very young audiences. Best for ages 13+. 
 

“RHAPSODICALLY BEAUTIFUL. A weird and wonderful new play – an inexpressibly moving theatrical fable about love, loss and the pleasures and pains of memory.”  - The New York Times

"Perhaps more than anything else, the eerie wonderland of “Eurydice” evokes the discombobulating experience of grief and loss, the desperate need to move on and the overwhelming desire never to let go — to turn and look back just one more time." - New York Times

“EXHILARATING!! A luminous retelling of the Orpheus myth, lush and limpid as a dream where both author and audience swim in the magical, sometimes menacing, and always thrilling flow of the unconscious.”  - The New Yorker

“Touching, inventive, invigoratingly compact and luminously liquid in its rhythms and design, “Eurydice” reframes the ancient myth of ill-fated love to focus not on the bereaved musician but on his dead bride — and on her struggle with love beyond the grave as both wife and daughter.”  - The San Francisco Chronicle
 

This play was originally produced by Madison Repertory Theatre, Madison, Wisconsin, August 29, 2003. Richard Corley, Artistic Director, Tony Forman, Managing Director.

And subsequently produced by Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2004. Tony Taccone, Artistic Director, Susan Medak, Managing Director. And Yale Repertory Theatre, James Bundy, Artistic Director, Victoria Nolan, Managing Director. “Produced by Second Stage Theatre, New York, 2007 Carole Rothman: Artistic Director

EURYDICE is produced by special arrangement with Bruce Ostler, BRET ADAMS, LTD., 448 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036.

TOWN PLAYERS OF NEW CANAAN - HISTORY OF THE POWERHOUSE THEATRE

In 1979, the original Power House to the Waveny Estate, located in what is now Waveny Park, stood empty and purposeless, falling prey to vandalism and deterioration. At the same time, the Town Players of New Canaan were looking for a home, a place to store costumes, build sets and perform. It was a perfect match that the abandoned building and the homeless Town Players should come together. The task of restoring the powerhouse and converting it to a theater, however, was a monumental undertaking and required serious fundraising and the efforts of hundreds of volunteers over a three-year period.  The result is a intimate 115-seat theater for the community to enjoy.

Since opening in 1983, the Town Players of New Canaan at the Powerhouse Theatre has performed hundreds of productions, staged readings, special events, theater educational classes and workshops, run children’s programs, etc., and is still going strong.  During Covid, we had a few months to step back and re-evaluate, and we decided it was time to come back even better!  In working again with the Town of New Canaan, we will be doubling the size of our lobby, updating to current ADA compliant restrooms, and hopefully establishing the additional Shed Theatre on the property to expand our theater education program, and well as providing a black-box theater for unique and intriguing productions.

The Town Players of New Canaan is an all-volunteer, 501(c)(3) not-for-profit community theater now in our 77th Year.  Established in 1946, we moved from place to place until finding our forever home.  We hope you will join us in your support of the new Powerhouse Performing Arts Center.

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