#hadestown analysis

First of all, the cane. It was sick as hell with its snarling dog head. I say it’s a dog head because the meanest dog you’ll ever meet is the one that howls inside your head. But it was too short for him. It might have fit when he wasn’t wearing a thick medical boot and a heeled snakeskin boot. But as we saw him onstage? It was too short. That would lead to insufficient support and possibly damage to your shoulder if you used it in everyday life. Also, it didn’t seem to have a rubber tip on the bottom, which would make it really uncomfortable to use, in my opinion. The rubber absorbs the shock of impact.

He DID, however, seem to use the cane accurately (when he used it). It was on the correct side, the rhythm was right. The rhythm is a hard thing to learn, so he probably practiced with it or has some experience walking with a cane.

BUT HERE IS WHERE MY TAKE IS HOT

I don’t think Patrick Page needed that cane. At least not full-time. I think it was likely a prop or just extra support— but if he needed it, I feel that they would have sized it accurately. However: Hades did need it.

Hades is almost never without his cane. While he’s being menacing, there it is. It could also function as a class indicator— the show is set sometime in the past, and canes were carried by the upper class for a long time. But he uses that cane for support.

Until, that is, he dances with Persephone. He starts off stationary, letting her dance around him. But gradually, he starts to pick it up. He does the little side-to-side moment completely unsupported, and eventually tosses the cane to a Fate so he can dance with Persephone unencumbered.

Because his wife is home and they’re in love and she functions as the support he was searching for with his cane. From there, he uses the cane less.

I don’t recall exactly how the cane featured during His Kiss, The Riot and as Persephone leaves him again, but it comes back and he leans on it again by the end of the show.

The first part, when she’s lamenting her choice to go with Hades, she sounds like she’s nearing a breakdown, and you can hear the almost crying in her voice. She’s desperate and mourning her own life, and can you ever hear it. And the buildup to the emotional part???? Flawless.

The second part is also incredible, starting at “Flowers, I remember fields of flowers”. She sounds like she was spiralling, but then she thought of her world and of Orpheus, however little she could remember of it, and the memory dragged her out of the spiral. She then slowly becomes more and more resigned to her fate, still mournful, but more in a tired, given up way.

Given how Demeter isn't mentioned at all(unlike most retellings of the Persephone/Hades myth) and how Persephone and Hades seem to be older and years into their relationship, I assumed Hades and Demeter were on decent terms after the kidnapping of Persephone.

Whatever respect Demeter had for Hades? Gone. He literally invented global warming. Spring and Fall basically don't exist anymore, crops and vegetation die due to the harsh winters and the Earth overheats in the summer. And the harvest is literally Demeter's domain.

Not only that, but he also comes to pick up Persephone earlier than he's supposed to, which affects the seasons even more because the literal bringer of spring isn't around for the entire season. And who is the lady of spring? Oh right, Demeter's daughter.

And what about Poseidon? "Oceans rise and overflow", as said by Persephone, which is Poseidon's domain. And this might be more of a stretch, but with all the industrialization, I wouldn't be surprised if oil pollution rose from Hadestown and into the living world's oceans. Poseidon would be fucking pissed.

And if we're going with water pollution, we can't forget about air pollution from the smoke of the factories. The air is Aeolus and Aer's domains (Aeolus is king of the winds, Aer is the personification of the air that mortals breath)

Also the amount of work Thanatos, Hermes, Charon, Macaria and other afterlife gods would have due to the many mortals dying of starvation or succumbing to the harsh winter storms.