Gary Shteyman, Period 8, 11/5/21

 Gary Shteyman

Period 8

11/5/21

Modern Mythology 2022

Last week, I went to see the show Hadestown. I went with my mother, who at this point is used to my long lectures on mythology. In the car, she asked me what the story of Hadestown was about. I, being both a theater nerd and a mythology nerd, spent the entire car ride explaining the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, the inspiration for Hadestown. This is a tale I’ve come to love, due to the sheer amount of romance, tragedy, and supernaturality in the story. The perfect storm of these qualities creates a beautiful story, and that appreciation was intensified once I started playing a musical instrument. So, having done the preliminary lecture and now sitting comfortably in the theater, I thought I knew everything that was about to happen, and was just there for some good tunes to go along. Little did I know, Hadestown perfectly encapsulates how myths evolve over time to match the societies telling them.

    Despite knowing the story behind the play, I didn’t actually know what the play was about. That is why I was so shocked when the opening number of the musical was an upbeat expositional piece that took heavy inspiration from 20s era jazz. The entire play is a retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice tale, but set in 1920s America. It is explained in the expositional song that the world is full of climate change, drastic weather conditions, and corrupt humanity. Orpheus is a barkeep, who is characterized by his innocence to the world around him. He sees the good in people, and wants to write songs that would help the world recover. Eurydice is a girl on the run, who is the exact opposite of Orpheus; she is jaded and nihilistic, and her main goal in life is to survive. The gods also prominently feature in this story, specifically Hades, Persephone, and Hermes. Hades is the stereotypical oil baron; he is greedy and obsessed with making his town, Hadestown, the city of progress. The show takes a lot of inspiration from Hades’ later characterization as the God of Wealth, as multiple verses throughout the musical allude to his immense wealth. Persephone is more in line with modern versions of her story. She is not satisfied as Queen of Hadestown, and while she used to love Hades, she has grown to resent him for forcing her back to Hadestown every six months. Interestingly, Persephone turns to alcohol to cope with her failing marriage and discontent with life. The showriters used her initial story as the Goddess of Spring, and morphed it into a Goddess of bountiful harvest and the vine. This lends itself well to the Prohibition-era aesthetic the show is going for, as that period is widely known as one of drunken revelry in the face of societal suppression.

    With all the characters established, and Hermes portrayed as our lovable narrator for the tale, the story began. The actual plot of the show does not stray too far away from the original premise, while at the same time incorporating modern tropes that strengthen the love story. Orpheus and Eurydice fall for each other almost immediately, with the bond being represented by a red flower Orpheus gives to Eurydice. I interpreted this as Orpheus giving Eurydice her innocence back through love, keeping with both modern tropes and flower myths we discussed in class. As times get tough and the world gets worse, Eurydice dies and Orpheus sets out to bring her back. This is where the main divergence happens from the original myth. You see, as Orpheus and Eurydice fall in love, Hades and Persephone fall out of love, and it is rapid. Hades makes the claim that all the technology and money in Hadestown is all out of love for Persephone, and Persephone becomes more and more jaded with him. When their argument concludes, Hades threatens to find someone else who would appreciate his “affections”,  and then proceeds to look towards Eurydice. He comes to Eurydice and invites her to join him in Hadestown. He argues that he would be able to provide Eurydice with more comfort and better living conditions than Orpheus ever could. She takes him up on his offer, and she goes to Hadestown to work for him. Orpheus, distraught, comes to rescue her, only to find out that every citizen in Hadestown has sold their soul to Hades, and are now nothing but mindless workers. Orpheus then proceeds to galvanize the workers and Eurydice in the fight against Hades. Eventually, Hades is convinced, and sends Orpheus off with the classic caveat that he cannot look back at Eurydice or else she returns to Hades. At this point, I was prepared for a happy ending, but then the show decides that Orpheus does fail, and Eurydice is sent back. And that is where my hopes for this blog post were dashed.

I know that Orpheus fails in the original story. I was aware that Hadestown was most likely going to end the same way. But I was still very confused when they actually went through with it. I view Hadestown as the best example of a modern Orpheus and Eurydice story. The initial romance morphs into a greater narrative of small workers versus big corporations. The lowly Orpheus, naive and with a song in his heart, convinces the evil capitalist Hades to let his workers free, and Hades obliges. Orpheus succeeding seemed necessary for this narrative. To tell a world full of seemingly sociopathic billionaires and restless unions that the billionaires win would not satisfy a 21st century audience. This was the thought going through my head when Orpheus failed, and I did not understand how the showriters were going to console the audience. But then, as I desperately tried to think of how I would conclude this blog, Hermes came on stage and sang a reprise of the opening song. In the song, he tells the audience that the story they just watched was, in fact, very sad. But it is precisely because of that sadness that the story was told. This frames the entire play in an entirely new way. Sometimes, most of the time, greedy billionaires win, and the little guy loses. But the fact that one little guy, with nothing but love and his talent, almost won, should be a point of hope for the rest of us. We should not give up because Orpheus failed, but rather, succeed where he couldn’t. This message fits perfectly in the 20th-21st century context of the story, and makes for a chillingly beautiful message.