Eurydice in wonderland

Here's an idea: Instead of putting Greek gods on roller skates, why not put them on a tricycle hauling a baboon?

Well, it wasn't "Xanadu," but Greek mythology is getting an equally jaw-dropping, bizarre treatment down the street at Second Stage Theatre's production of Sarah Ruhl's "eurydice," now in previews. It's an attempt by the Pulitzer Prize finalist (though certainly not for this show) to tell the story of Orpheus from the point of view of the unfortunate and rather amoebic character of his eponymous wife.

Now, thematically--dealing with the dangers of attachment to what is lost--the play has a lot going for it. Somewhere in between Eurydice's encounters with The Nasty and Intersting Man, her dead father, a chorus of stones dressed up as chimney sweeps and the trike-riding Hades himself and the ultimately bleak conclusion, this is all lost, however. Eurydice and her father's banal chitchat of their former lives and Orpheus' incomprehensible pronouncements--something about sending notes with worms and sucking himself through a straw--drone on for too long to the point where I was about ready for a cup of that mind-erasing water myself. Still, Maria Dizzia as the titular character and the Charles Shaw Robinson as her father are standouts in the cast of largely unknown actors.

The set catches the whimsical nature of the play quite well. It looks something like a towering public washroom, tilting at the angle of optical illusion and back by a water-gushing elevator.

The sound design, however, is overpowering to the point of making "Coram Boy" seem subtle by comparison. Ear-splitting tunes pop in at inopportune times to the point of making the audience uncomfortable. I sure feel sorry for anyone wearing those listening aids, because if they weren't deaf before...