♡

I was once a teenage boy, at a Rufus Wainright concert. I sat there, with my mom and a bunch of gay couples waiting for Rufus, when this skinny little girl in a flower print dress comes out on stage, with her guitar; and in her reedy, insecure voice, she tells us that she’s written a musical. It’s a retelling of a classic Greek myth, she says, voice like a twig; a retelling of Orpheus, set in a kind of Great Depression Mining Town setting.

It was Anaïs Mitchell, creator of Hadestown. The album had only just been pressed; there was no stage production, of yet. It was just a dream, still.

The stage was utterly bare; no backup singers or other instruments, just her and her guitar. She picked it up and performed both sides of the call-and-return of Why We Build The Wall. She sang Our Lady Of The Underground; without any of the confidence or sex that later singers would bring to that song; just her and her tiny, unsteady voice. She sang the Wedding Song, and Flowers; shifting her weight from foot to foot, clearly full of nerves.

I was moved. I’d just spent a year in a classical theater conservatory, and I knew intimately how terrifying it was, to stand in front of a great crowd of strangers with expectations and taste. I wanted to get up on that stage and wrap her in a tremendous hug, and tell her I hoped everything worked out like she dreamed. That wasn’t appropriate to do, though, so I did the less creepy thing and bought one of her CDs. Told her she did good.

I listened to it over and over and over again.

I sang the Wedding Song to girlfriends. I belted Our Lady Of The Underground in the car, to and from work. I played Why We Build The Wall while drinking and reading the news.

It’s been nearly 20 years since that concert. Now Anaïs’s baby has a run on Broadway, or so I hear. There’s a Proshot, and people writing essay-length examinations. There’s analysis.

It warms my heart. I feel like, I dunno, not an uncle, but maybe like a friendly neighbor; excited to see that kid Anaïs take her wacky dream and actually succeed with it; actually make it all the way, and not wash out. It’s beautiful. I love it.

Thanks for making your quirky little musical, Anaïs; wherever you are. Your music has been a delight to me for coming up on 2 decades now, and it truly is so lovely to see so many others also appreciating your work.

That the Fates might not be real.

Like, if you think about it a sec- Hades is unarguably real in the world of Hadestown. The story makes no sense if he's "just" a metaphor for death. He has to be a person that you can argue with and plead with and struggle against and maybe- just maybe- melt his heart. Same with Persephone- she has to be a real person who takes pity on Orpheus and Eurydice, goes to bat for them against her husband, has feelings and motivations about this whole mess.

But the thing the Fates do, within the story, is give voice to the characters' doubts, fears, guilt, and spite. When The Chips Are Down is as much Eurydice arguing with herself as it is the Fates bullying her with an accordion. Word to the Wise is as much Hades remembering that Orpheus is dangerous for his rule and he can't afford to be kind when he's been so cruel for so long. Nothing Ever Changes is Orpheus' despair. And of course, Doubt Comes In is exactly that.

The Fates do other stuff, but it's all stuff that could easily be read as a metaphor. It's bad luck that Eurydice's candle gets blown out, that the wind steals her jacket, and so on. There's a few points where they serve as a Greek chorus- Gone, I'm Gone being the big one. But there's no point where they talk to the other characters or have a human role to play in the story. There's no point at which Orpheus has to convince the Fates of anything.

And if you pick that apart, oh my god, does it play into the themes of the show so well.

In the world of Hadestown, Fate is your own blinkered worldview. It's your doubts, your fears, your petty human cruelty, your guilt, and your despair. If you can rise above that fear and that despair, you can change your fate. And Orpheus was able to, for a time.

The thing that makes this story a tragedy is that the characters weren't able to. Hades let his fear for the state of his kingdom take control of him, and Orpheus let his fear that Eurydice wouldn't be there make him look back. And there's a level on which this tragedy was inevitable. People are the products of their circumstances, and fear is a natural part of ~the human condition~- people are always gonna be scared of things and mess up because of it.

But if you can overcome that fear, if you can form a union!! connect with the people around you and grow stronger together, if you can believe in the people you love and the world that could be--

Like maybe one day Ilya and Shane start housing teenage hockey players that are traveling to go to their camps. And one of these kids is a young boy who has a bad temper. He talks back to the coaches, he starts fights on the ice for no reason, and a lot of the other kids really don’t like him. But Ilya notices that maybe there’s a reason he’s acting this way, and when he tells Shane that he thinks there’s something going on with the kid, Shane starts investigating almost immediately. Soon enough they find out that the kid is in foster care, his parents kicked him for whatever reason (although in my brain said teen would probably be some form of queer and his parents would not like that) and now the kid is basically jumping around housed. And that’s when Shane and Ilya decide to help him. At first it’s small stuff, they take him on outings. They buy him gifts. They try to make him feel loved. And then all of a sudden it’s this kids last day at the Hollanov house, and for the first time Shane and Ilya watch this extremely guarded kid cry because he doesn’t want to go back to jumping around houses. He wants to stay there and play hockey. Unfortunately, due to all the legality, he can’t stay. But that night Ilya and Shane started the process to become foster parents. And one day the kid comes back for camp, but instead of leaving after the summer, he gets to stay.

Credits: @foxes-in-love

your partner, your fiance, your future husband is at constant risk of deportation back to a country where, if he’s found out to be in a relationship with you, he would be imprisoned and possibly killed? yeah fucking right i wouldn’t risk being seen in public. i’m not going to your teams bbq, i don’t know them, what if they don’t care but let it slip to someone who does?

“baby you have to. you know SSRIs have a half-life, you have to be consistent”

Imagine each of the protagonists from the books ending up in Orpheus’ shoes… How likely are each of them to turn around? 🤔

The friends I asked had some really interesting takes and now I am invested and need more people to chime in 🤣

I think ilya doubts things more and even though he trusts shane fully he doesnt trust the world and people around him. He would have a much harder time not turning around. But once again they are so in tune with one another that I think they have a solid chance. Honestly it feels 50/50 to me if he would turn or not.

Troy... I think he would turn. I dont have an explanation i just think he would.

Harris is much more trusting of the world and has less anxiety. He is secure in his mind and I think he would be able to rationalize that even if its a trick he can go back and try again and its worth trying this way first. I would say he has the best shot with 99% chance he doesnt turn.

Hayden finds out and gets them matching T-shirts that say "Shade" and "Hayd" (you get it, cuz they rhyme! C'mon buddy this is awesome you'll love it 😀)