Sarah Ruhl

"They're all about love and death."

As the director of "Eurydice", my teacher had me research the original director of the play to get an idea of her thoughts and ideas upon creating this modern twist of Eurydice.

Response to Sarah Ruhl Research

A characteristic of Sarah Ruhl's plays are often comedy mixed with sudden tragedy, sadness, and gut wrenching despair. Eurydice is said to have been directed in an "anachronistic postmodern fashion".

"...demonstrates the hallmarks of her writing, namely an 

economy of poetic language reflected in both dialogue and 

stage directions alike; a utilization of tableaux and scripted 

imagery; and extremity of emotional juxtaposition..."

 “Ruhl’s plays are a combination of the avant-garde, Greek myth, lyrical poetry, and magical realism, with a smattering of vaudeville and German expressionism thrown in. It’s a blend that could easily give way to postmodern obscurantism, except that Ruhl has a big heart.”

She incorporates realism with surrealism. Although the scenes may be unlikely and crazy, she wants the audience to feel the emotions of the characters. Ruhl is a very proud feminist playwright. She incorporates women as the main characters and the ones to be the change in history,

"... recasting history through a distinctly feminine lens."

Although this may have been Sarah Ruhl's original take on the play, she still uses an ostranenie method, a Brechtian method that uses symbolism to refer to different points of the original play. She also had purposely incorporated classical Greek theatre devices, such as choral speaking with the stones. 

“The play is really dedicated to my father, who died 

when I was twenty and he was fifty-five…I wanted to 

write something where I would be allowed to have a 

few more conversations with him. A myth exploring 

the underworld and the connection between the dead 

and the living was a way to negotiate that terrain.”

Ruhl wanted to show that the woman's main conflict between lover and father. She didn't want the story's direction to be in the hands of a male, but a woman. Ruhl uses language as a powerful tool throughout her play. Letters are read out loud and used throughout the play as they represent a reconnection between the character and her father.