Orpheus (and Persephone and Eurydice)

Interacts with people and enacts his story on a loop. The start point is Millennium
Square and the end point the College of Art, but Victoria Gardens and City Square may
also be roamed and a brief break taken between ending 5 and resuming with 1:
1) looks for Persephone,
2) interacts with Persephone in the Town Hall portico,
3) looks for Eurydice near the College of Art,
4) finds Eurydice,
5) leads Eurydice out of the Underworld, but looks back before reaching the top
of the street – thereby killing her.

1 Orpheus [to bystanders while seeking Persephone] I am seeking

[if ‘Yes’]
Then where is she? Would you tell me, or better, show me?

[if they offer to show you say, while going to the Town Hall portico]
You may be wondering why I, a living soul, am here in the Underworld and for your
help I will tell you my sad tale. Only a few months ago I was the happiest man alive.
The woman of my dreams agreed to be my bride and I thought we would live happily
ever after. Alas, only weeks after our wedding she was walking through the flowery
meadow when a snake in the grass bit her on the ankle. The viper’s venom made her
last hour horrible and she died before I could reach her to hold her in my arms to
comfort her and tell her how much I love her. For, I do love her and my love does not
lessen with the passage of time. And that is why I am here – to ask for her life back,
because that life that was so untimely and cruelly snatched away from her and from me.
I hope Persephone will take pity on me and return my Eurydice to the light of day as a
living girl.

[if ‘No’]
If you find Persephone, who dwells in the palace of the ruler of the shades – which I’ve
been told is a building with a Portico with steps leading up to it – please tell her I am
looking for her and if you see me again please tell me where to find her.

2
Orpheus [to Persephone] Gods of this world, placed below the earth, to
which descend all those who are created mortal; if you allow me, and it is lawful, to set
aside the fictions of idle tongues and speak truth, I have not come here to see dark
Tartarus, nor to bind your hound Cerberus, Medusa’s child, with his three necks, and
snaky hair. My wife is the cause of my journey. A viper she trod on diffused its venom
into her body, and robbed her of her best years. I longed to be able to accept it, and I do
not say I have not tried: Love won.
Love is a god well-known in the world above, though I do not know if the same
is true here: though I do imagine him to be here as well, and if the story of ancient times
is not a lie, you also were wedded by Love. I beg you, by these fearful places, by this
immense abyss, and the silence of your vast realms, reverse Eurydice’s swift death. All
things are destined to be yours, and though we delay a while, sooner or later we hasten
home. We are all coming here, this is our final abode, and you hold the longest reign
over the human race. Eurydice, too, will be yours to command, when she has lived out
her fair span of years, to maturity. I ask this boon as your gift; but, if the fates refuse my
wife this kindness, I am determined not to return to the world above; you can delight in
both our untimely deaths.

Persephone Orpheus, you do indeed set aside the fictions of idle tongues and
speak the truth. The bloodless spirits have wept at your entreaty – for you have made a
most perilous journey for the sake of love. Like you I spend my time in the world above
longing for my spouse here below in the silence of our vast realm and yet, while I am
here I long for my mother’s love left behind in the world above. Being, all of us,
immortals and bound by our promises we cannot hope to be together forever in either
place. Nevertheless, Love is known here and my heart is moved to tears by your speech.
I speak now for us both – both the rulers of this silent realm of shades – when I say we
will not permit you to take up residence here before your due time. We will not refuse
your prayer. But one thing yet remains before we will reverse Eurydice’s swift death:
promise you will not look behind you until you once again walk in the light of the sun
or your wife will die her second time this day.

Orpheus Gods of this world, placed below the earth, you grant me a great
gift and a great kindness to my wife, you have my promise I will not look back.

Persephone Then find Eurydice alive among the weightless throng of recent
ghosts and lead her to the world above by the Gate of Taenarus near the moving maze.

3
Orpheus [to bystanders while seeking Eurydice]
Please, have you seen my wife? I’m looking for my Eurydice, the queen of my
heart, the sweetest, most beautiful girl you’ve ever seen. On the day she died she’d
crowned her golden hair with flowers, but today they are a bridal wreath, because
Persephone has granted that I may take my Eurydice back to the world above to lie with
me happily until we have lived out our due span of time upon the earth. Such is the
power of Love!

4
Orpheus [to Eurydice]
My Eurydice! My one, my only, love! I have come to take you away from this
place and back to the world above. Because Love is a god well-known in the world
above and in the world below, Persephone has granted me the boon of reversing your
swift death. Once we reach the world above you will live out your fair span of years by
my side. Come, let us leave this silent realm of bloodless ghosts, follow me and don’t
look back!

5
Eurydice [as he looks back] No!
Orpheus [to Eurydice as she departs and being unable to follow her – imagine a
glass wall] Eurydice! Through my own fault I have lost you. No, I have killed you. I
am the viper that has robbed you of your best years. How am I to live without you? Yet
live I must – for the rulers of this vast realm will not permit me to be with you here
before my due time of death.
Eurydice [as she returns to the Underworld] Farewell, Orpheus.
Orpheus Until we meet again, my love.