#orpheus

Thinking about the Hadestown proshot and Orpheus being introduced wiping down a table with his back to the audience. Hermes has to call out to him again to get him to take his opening bow, and for the show to start, Orpheus has to turn around.

maybe orpheus always looks back because his very effort to reverse death means that he can't look forward. if he could look forward, he could accept eurydice's death, grieve, and keep moving in life. his refusal to accept her death is looking back. his going down to the underworld, asking hades and persephone for her life, trying to lead her out... it's all 'looking back'. he does nothing for the entire story except look back. orpheus! looks! back! it's his entire thing! the story ends the same way it begins: orpheus looked back.

imagine going to your first rehearsal for a musical and the first words your characters say to each other are “come home with me” “who are you” “the man who’s gonna marry you” and your first duet is a song about a wedding and you get to fall in love doing a show about The Tragic Greek Lovers Ever and then years later you get married to each other and you become the version of the lovers who get a happy ending and get to go home together and you get to do the show again together and now the characters have a different meaning

Everyone loves a cycle aware Orpheus but what about a cycle aware Eurydice? Eurydice who tries her hardest to resist the hunger and the cold. Tries to convince Orpheus to just LOOK UP time and time again to no avail. Eurydice who KNOWS and still fails. She knows he’s gonna turn around. She knows they’re not gonna make it out of hell together. But she hopes. Every time she hopes that he loves her a little bit less than the last time. Hopes he won’t look back. But of course, Orpheus is still Orpheus. And he loves her more than anything.