The Eurydice Case

by Joanna Crawley 

 

There is a special place in hell for women

who don't help other women.

- Madeleine Albright

 

0. Preset

We hear the occasional loud, dull thump from a dark, silent stage. 

 

1. The Curse

The thumping becomes more and more frequent. Female voices whisper curses. Barely audible. Lights flicker and then rise very slowly throughout the speech to reveal the forest of hung girls.

 

Voice of Eurydice: 

 

Eternal night on You.

Gods.

And you, who represent Gods on Earth.

Men.

 

You don’t see it yet, do you?  You think it’s just a sexy light arrangement before we get down to business.

But no there will be no lace and no latex and no skin on skin come to daddy issues.

 

For the night is dark and full of terrors and it’s coming for you through your Xbox and dropbox and weekend box office results and your weekday office hours romance.

You.

Who betray and abuse and ignore and simply don’t have time for this emotional mess and jabber because you are too busy in a completely rational logical impassive way too busy crashing a bloody plane into a bloody mountain because you just couldn’t not.

 

Too busy not listening and not asking for permission and not seeing the problem.

Too busy shouting blue murder at the blue bar on your shattered screen. Oh did it break really? But sure you didn’t expect that, because otherwise why on earth would smash it?

 

Who would do a thing like that?

You.

And that’s why you’re so busy. That’s why you don’t have time.

And don’t tell me that you have a masculinity crisis and a bird flue and a heart-bleed and some other where-the-fuck-are-my-socks global disaster. And don’t show me that article on ClickHole proving once and for all that my voice evolved to be weaker for a reason.

You say I’m aggressive when I don’t let you interrupt me.

You say I’m exaggerating.

You say them’s the breaks.

You say it’s complicated. You can’t save everybody can you?

And you can say it because we keep letting you, we keep letting you in, we keep letting you invalidate us and infantilize us and institutionalize us. And you think it’s ok.

But not anymore.

Let the night fall on you.

And Nightfall is not another shaken not stirred movie you watched alone on your computer and you don’t get to identify yourself with a hero in this.

In this you have no lines and you die in the first ten minutes somewhere in the background from a bullet that was not even shot in your direction.

And your immortal body will delete itself accidentally in a way that no Indian IT guy will understand or care about.

Night on you, men and you who represent them in heaven, gods.

It will be dark and it will be long because I said so.

And it won’t go away when you tell me I don’t look my age.

It will find you, crush you and forget you.

 

2.

Laying together, peacefully, clothes in mess.  

 

Eurydice: (munching something meaty and bloody)… and then he turned around and – well, yes - of course I wanted him to see me… !

Orpheus: (playing with her hair) You do turn heads, you know…

Eurydice: And, sure I was dying to see him too, but once he turned, something strange happened. Everything got so… So… And I just stood there, feeling as if something was sucking me into a void, I don’t know, as if there was not a single drop of blood in my legs. This feeling that you have when you’re walking and you slip and trip and the ground is rushing up at you. But instead of it lasting half a second the way it does it seemed to last forever.

Orpheus: Do you always tell the guys how dreamt of other guys?

Eurydice: How do you know it wasn’t you?

Orpheus: Well, we know each other for, what? 30 minutes?

Eurydice: Really? It feels like 35 minutes at least!

Orpheus: And you haven’t seen his face/

Eurydice: I nearly did.

Orpheus: And it seems that he did screw up massively in this one, so there’s no way it could be me. 

Eurydice: Cause you’re one of the good guys, ha?

Orpheus: Maybe. Are you the only girl in the world who prefers good guys to bad boys?

Eurydice: Not many good guys around to get a sense... (pause) You want some?

Orpheus: Isn’t it still alive?/

Eurydice: They are great for you, you know? Potassium. Great for concentration. Muscles. Tracking fast moving objects. The more you eat the more you can eat! (laughs) You understand?  (evidently he doesn’t) “… the more you eat you can…  catch… course you’re… and then you can eat…” (beat) Anyway. Keeps you focused. They say that praying can get you same thing, but for me it was always the right nutrition, you know? (beat) You’re not a hunter, aren’t you?

Orpheus: No. Are you?/

Eurydice: I didn’t think so. You’re ribbed, all right. But the hands… (grabs his hands with bloody fingers, draws something on his forearm) Sure you don’t want some?  

Orpheus: Maybe later.

Eurydice: Oh, so you think there will be some “later”?

Orpheus: Well, if you need to loose any of these nutritious calories, I’m here to help.

Eurydice: You’re too kind.

Orpheus: I never have dreams like this, you know?  

Eurydice: You don’t?

Orpheus: No really, nothing that vivid anyway. No adventures, no narrative. Eurydice: No fear.

Orpheus: Or joy. Some shadows, some whispers maybe. But that’s probably just the night creeping into my head.

Eurydice: That must put a lot of pressure on reality!

Orpheus: I know! You have to actually live, do stuff. 

Eurydice: Like now.

Orpheus: Yes. Now is good.

Eurydice: Where were you going anyway? 

Orpheus: When you jumped out at me?

Eurydice: I didn’t jump at you, I was chasing (points at the bloody thing she’s eating).

Orpheus: I don’t really know where I was going.

Eurydice: Aha.

Orpheus: What?

Eurydice: No nothing. (pause) Are you homeless or something?

Orpheus: No.

Eurydice: Wanted?

Orpheus: You mean, universally desired?  

Eurydice: I mean, are you a freaking weirdo who stalks young girls in the woods, makes sweet love to them and them chops them into pieces?

Orpheus: Couldn’t stay in bed. Without dreams there’s never enough comfort in the sleep. It’s just a shortcut through the night. Faster, faster, to a new day, to a fresh beginning.

Eurydice: I like speed.

Orpheus: And the silence in my place. It paralyzes me. I hear the blood moving in my veins. It’s repulsive.

Eurydice: I like silence.

Orpheus: So I come here, always hoping to find something like… somebody like… Oh, crap, I actually have to run now. (starts gathering his things) But, I don’t want to leave you like this, you are… it was a really great … Well… first of all... you know what? You should be more careful!

Eurydice: Sharing the dreams?  

Orpheus: What? Yeah, sure, that too. But we did share more than that/

Eurydice: Ah, yeah. But that’s all fine, isn’t it? Outdoors gymnastics, basically. In a nice setting. Floristically speaking.

Orpheus: I beg your pardon!

Eurydice: What?

Orpheus: Gymnastics?

Eurydice: Oh, sorry? I meant to say: oh, my god, sweet lord in the heaven! Was it a thunder? And earthquake? You’ve nearly burnt me to the ground! Like a virgin, touched for the very first times. Didn't know how lost I was, until I found... you! You, my one and only… what’s your name again?

Orpheus: Orpheus.

Eurydice: Orpheus, my love! Orpheus, my live! Take me, take me, I beg you, and let it be the end of my miserable, lonely existence!

Orpheus: You’re a funny one.

Eurydice: What’s that? You said you love me too?

Orpheus: Ask me again tomorrow. I really have to run now.

Eurydice: Who says, I’ll be here tomorrow?

Orpheus: Well, I will be here tomorrow. And I’ll have a song for you.

Eurydice: A song.

Orpheus: Yes.

Eurydice: Why?

Orpheus: Because that’s what I do. I write songs.

Eurydice: Songs. Ok. Songs. And how does it work for you?

Orpheus: And I’m good.

Eurydice: How good?

Orpheus: Make the stones weep good. Die for it good. They’ve made me a king.

Eurydice: Who?

Orpheus: The Thrace people.

Eurydice: A king? Really? Poor suckers, they’ve actually put an artist in charge of a business? Humans are doomed.

Orpheus: Well, I’m not exactly a human. Half -god to be precise.

Eurydice: Yeah? Which half would that be?

Orpheus: Probably the one that made me come here.

Eurydice: A sleepless god. God of insomnia and one-night-stands.

Orpheus: One night stands? I said I come back.

Eurydice: You did, all right. With a song.

Orpheus: Yes.

Eurydice: About me?

Orpheus: That depends.

Eurydice: On what?

Orpheus: Does your name rhyme with something?

Eurydice: I’m sure it must…

Orpheus: Hit me then.

Eurydice: (slaps him playfully)

Orpheus: Au! With you name!

Eurydice: Ah, sorry.

Orpheus: You knew that!

Eurydice: Yeah. 

Orpheus: So?

Eurydice: A! Eurydice.

Orpheus: What???

Eurydice: Eu-ry-di-ce.

Orpheus: No.

Eurydice: No?

Orpheus: Won’t do, give me something else. Like… Your kind. The thing you are. Some sort of… A muse? A fairy?

Eurydice: A fairy? What are you three, or something? I’m a hamadryade!

Orpheus: Hama – (pause) You’re joking, aren’t you.

Eurydice: Don’t tell me. Hamadryade doesn’t rhyme either.

Orpheus: Nope.

Eurydice: It basically means an oak nymph, you know?

Orpheus: Oak. Bloke, stroke, poke… yoke…

Eurydice: Oh, for fuck sake, a tree being, ok? A tree! That must rhyme with something normal?

Orpheus: Tree, tree. Let me see…Follow me… We are free… you hold the key… Just you and me… Eurydice.

Eurydice: Are you for real? You said it doesn’t rhyme?

Orpheus: It’s a grower.

Eurydice: I wrote it down for you just in case.

Orpheus: Where?

Eurydice: Check (point at the blood traces on his arm).

Orpheus: You’ve signed me.

Eurydice: Aha.

Orpheus: Is this some kind of dendrologous witchcraft?

Eurydice: You won’t start growing roots, don’t worry. Unless you want to.

Orpheus: That would be something. Ok, (checks the arm) Eurydice.

Eurydice: Ok, Orpheus.

Orpheus: I’ll keep it. And I’ll keep you.

(he’s about to leave, then stops)

Do you smell that?

Eurydice: Well/

Orpheus: Never mind. Tomorrow!

(leaves)

 

3.  Hades – neon side of the moon  

 

Hades:

first scenes of the show

great moment in time

wanted to point it out

before the fiddle comes in

in this scary sweet smoky tune

(beat)

you’re welcome

beware of great moments

or better: be a great moment

you see, i am also a hobby philosopher

I only appear superficial

what is live without the risk of the loss?

don’t you like risk?

don’t you like life?

don't you like death gods?

creatures of the night

cigarette smoking

coffee dripping

nymphs annoying

monsters

i want to learn something about people

i want to feel something

feel sad

feel disappointed

feel rotten

inspired

attacked

shot

senseless

sexy

hopeful

and then die

on the battlefields in gallia

taking my empire down with me

but funny thing - i can’t die

does it make me a populist?

all taxes should go to the amusement parks 

the dark side of the moon is neon lit

and only i can see it 

 

4. Tree sex

 

Bodies fall.

Back to the “murmuring collage music”

 

Eurydice is yanking the bodies down and gathering them into a pile. She does this with purpose and without sympathy

 

 

Orpheus: What is that?

Eurydice: Oh. What do you know. The singing cavalier.

Orpheus: What are you doing?

Eurydice: If you came for some calories burning, you’ll have to wait, I’m busy. 

Orpheus: I don’t remember it being here last time.

Eurydice: Last time was a long time ago. 

Orpheus: No, it was just the last/ Oh, sorry, I really didn’t know how to inform you.

Eurydice: Sure.

Orpheus: Me bad.

Eurydice: Just don’t step on anything, ok?

Orpheus: But what happened here?

Eurydice: I don’t know. It’s been like this for a while now. 

Orpheus: Look at the face… 

Eurydice: It started last summer.

Orpheus: But what exactly?

Eurydice: It. Some called it a plague, some called it fashion. Girls hanging from the trees. My tree, a tree I was born from.

Orpheus: Everyday?

Eurydice: Yes, everyday! I wake up in the morning and there she is swinging in the wind, the noose squeezing her tongue and eyes out. First it was just one peasant’s daughter who hung herself on the tree under which her father was killed. Then dozens of other maniacs, their father’s usually still alive but a bit distant, absent, maybe just disinterested. The first one was turned by the Gods into a star constellation, the rest just rot. But they keep trying. (To the hung girl) Hey girl, was it really so hard to stay alive? Was it so unbearable to get up in the morning, work, eat, fuck, go to sleep, get up again? Did you think it was supposed to get any better than that? 

Orpheus: Maybe you should leave her alone…

Eurydice: No way, couple of more hours and she’ll start to stink. I’m getting her out of here. 

Orpheus: So we do have coupe of hours?

Eurydice: Would you just/

Orpheus: What?

Eurydice: No, nothing.

Orpheus: You’re angry, aren’t you?

Eurydice: If I were angry, you wouldn’t have to ask, believe me.

Orpheus: I really meant to come the next day.

Eurydice: Ok.

Orpheus: You don’t believe me?

Eurydice: No, why wouldn’t I?

Orpheus: And I know that the song…

Eurydice: I didn’t ask for it either.

Orpheus: But you can, you can ask me for things.

Eurydice: Why wouldn’t you just stop promising?

Orpheus: Did you wait for me?

Eurydice: No.

Orpheus: You did.

Eurydice: Not really. 

Orpheus: So you did!

Eurydice: You’re really not helping.

Orpheus: I will. I promise.

Eurydice: See, you’re doing it again!

Orpheus: But I mean it. Really. I’ll help.

Eurydice: Then do. Really do.

Orpheus: Of course.

Eurydice: Use your royal super-powers and/

Orpheus: In a second. I had such a tough day, you wouldn’t imagine. Just stop for moment, would you?

Eurydice: I’m delighted to be your leisure activity but I don’t think/

Orpheus: She’s not going anywhere.

Eurydice: I had this dream again.

Orpheus: The spooky one? 

Eurydice: Were you listening to me at all?

Orpheus: Not spooky, sorry, wrong word. The one… You were helpless/

Eurydice: It’s like a funeral in my brain is happening over and over and over again. I had always thought myself tough.

Orpheus: You are tough.

Eurydice: The kind of person that could survive a disaster. But in the dream, suddenly I find myself loosing something I just cannot...

Orpheus: It’s just a dream.

Eurydice: The opposite of hell is not heaven but vitality, you know. And it is vitality that seems to be slipping away from me.

Orpheus: It’s not real.  

Eurydice: So I just stare into the darkness. And recon with this question. If I’m not the kind of person who would make it through the catastrophe then who am I? (beat) And now all this human trash on top of it!

Orpheus: You know what always comforts me? 

Eurydice: An outdoor shag?

Orpheus: Not so blue after all!

Eurydice: Sorry, you were saying?

Orpheus: You have your tree, right?

Eurydice: An oak, yes.

Orpheus: And it’s important, isn’t it?

Eurydice: I was born from it, I’ll die with it.

Orpheus: Something you know better than anything else?

Eurydice: Yes.

Orpheus: Think about it. Close you eyes. Try to recreate it in your head.

Eurydice: It’s just there behind the swinging/

Orpheus: Doesn’t matter. Create it again for me.

Eurydice: Just thinking.

Orpheus: Just think. Coming back to the basic is good. Do you see it?

Eurydice: Yes.

Orpheus: Lead me. 

Eurydice: What? 

Orpheus: Make me feel it too.

Eurydice: You’re strange.

Orpheus: Just do it. I’m closing me eyes too.

Eurydice: Ok, so imagine the surface.

Orpheus: The bark.

Eurydice: It seems..?

Orpheus: Porous.

Eurydice: But…?

Orpheus: Rough. (You’re doing great).

Eurydice: (Don’t distract me now) Try it with your hand.  

Orpheus: Moist…

Eurydice: Breath it in.

Orpheus: Fragrant.

Eurydice: But the tree is not just what you see outside. It continues deep down under the skin of the Earth.

Orpheus: How deep?

Eurydice: Deep to the core.

Orpheus: Don’t stop.

Eurydice: Through the coppice and the chaparral. The thickets thick with mould.

Orpheus: The bracken and the brier.

Eurydice: The roots going down, spreading in all directions. Whichever path you follow, you will get there. The tree has time. It will grow.

Orpheus: And grow.

Eurydice: Slowly. Go around it. Again.

Orpheus: And again.

Eurydice: You might not even notice how it changes. The rings open, one by one to create space for the new tissue.

Orpheus: And you can shoot right through it with rays of dark matter, every day it will be growing tighter.

Eurydice: You can see resin swelling, getting warmer.

Orpheus: Fibres tensing.

Eurydice: Leaves aligning. You don’t even see the sky anymore.

Orpheus: Maybe there’s no sky anymore?

Eurydice: Maybe the sun has exploded. You don’t care. Cause if you are very, very lucky, and very, very patient.

Orpheus: Very patient.

Eurydice: You will experience…

Orpheus: Blossom. 

 

Eurydice: After we made love we stayed motionless for hours.

Orpheus: Our heads touching each other softly.

Eurydice: Our breath in a perfect unison.

Orpheus: No thought.

Eurydice: No sound.

Orpheus: No desire.

Eurydice: We didn’t talk, afraid to break the silence.

Orpheus: Yes, silence. The only thing that kept us from thinking…

Eurydice: What did just happen here?

 

5.

Hades:

Could these sensations make me feel the pleasures of a normal man?

I’ve got the spirit, lose the feeling.

 

I need a story

that changes

with every touch

of the sound

I need to let out all shadows

leave out certain key words

but how can u have a day without a night?

 

I’m tired of freeways

totally sober and without cigarettes

summer’s almost gone

unfinished sympathy

at the beach club

we are ugly but we have the music

 

It’s getting faster, moving faster now, its getting out of hand,

Lights are flashing, cars are crashing,

 

What means to you, to me,

and we will meet again,

I’m watching you, I’m watching her,

 

Guess I grew up too fast

And I forgot my name

Who is right, who can tell,

and who gives a damn

 

Now love is here

Let’s hear it.

Push my button...

Take me out tonight

 

 

I’ve got the spirit, but lose the feeling,

Feeling, feeling

 

6.

Hades: That’s a ripe one you have there.

Eurydice: Not exactly a classic beauty.

Hades: No. But there’s something… pleasant about her. You’d gladly hold the lift for her. Ask her for directions -

Eurydice: But not as gladly wake up next to her damp limp body.

Hades: Well… Certain pleasures are for the connoisseur only.

Eurydice: You’re disgusting.

Hades: I prefer “sophisticated”. 

Eurydice: Don’t you have paperwork to be getting on with? I’d imagined this craze would have left you with quite an administrative back-log.

Hades: I manage my chores well enough, thanks for asking. 

Eurydice: And still have time for rambling around here constantly. Being the God Of The Underworld must be the best gig ever.

Hades: Wouldn’t miss a jest like this (girls).

Eurydice: You mean this is your doing?

Hades: This? I’d wish. But I can appreciate a good design.

Eurydice: Design? It’s a total mess!

Hades: Chaos reigns.

Eurydice: You find it amusing!

Hades: What can I say? Anybody would get bored with bastard babies left in the bushes to rot and stray lepers shipped off to die. This is at least dramatic.  

Eurydice: What is wrong with this place? Where is all this death coming from? The most smelly things here used to be the fauns and they’re at least good company.

Hades: Company, right. You still have some fur in your teeth from the last time.

Eurydice: You know that I’m not/

Hades: Don’t be lying to yourself, Eurydice, your forest is a creepy little freak show. Crackling and buzzing, crawling and lurking. And that’s why you like it in here.

Eurydice: That’s what YOU like in here.

Hades: Guilty. But we’re not that different.

Eurydice: The show is over anyway. Now it’s just a dumpster for the human misery. Why are they even here (girls)? 

Hades: Practicalities. I presume. Discretion. Company. Crazy little tree nymph who will burry them anyway.

Eurydice: I’m not burying them.

Hades: You’re throwing them into a ditch at least.

Eurydice: Only those who end up on my tree. Housekeeping.

Hades: I saw you. You care.

Eurydice: Yes. For the aesthetics.

Hades: You’re afraid.

Eurydice: Of these dead dummies?

Hades: That one day you might find it attractive too. It’s so simple. Just find a firm piece of ivy or a root. The rest is swinging.

Eurydice: Fuck off.

Hades: Are you not going to tell me?

Eurydice: Tell you what?

Hades: About your new little play mate?

Eurydice: You’re a total creep, Hades, you know that? I bet you saw everything from some bush anyway. 

Hades: There are better cures for bad dreams than cheap sex.

Eurydice: Yeah? 

Hades: Or sad films…

Eurydice: What?

Hades: ... red wine and sleeping pills…

Eurydice: Are you still talking to me?

Hades: No? Nothing? Ok, we’ll work on your cultural literacy, some other time.

Eurydice: I like him, ok?

Hades: You liked me once.

Eurydice: So? You’ve disappeared.

Hades: Just for a year.

Eurydice: Or thirty.

Hades: I’m just curious. Why bother? You’ve been toying with this young and beautiful body for ages. You must be bored to death.

Eurydice: Is this some kind of “get a job” motivational talk?

Hades: You might as well be hanging here.

Eurydice: Wouldn’t that mean being stuck with you for all eternity though? As a mindless gasp of air? No thanks.    

Hades: I only want you…

Eurydice: Dead?

Hades: No, alive actually. Finally alive.  

Eurydice: Don’t have time for this. 

Hades: Suit yourself. But they will keep coming.

Eurydice: Then I’ll make them stop.

Hades: How?

Eurydice: I’ll figure it out, ok?

Hades: Aren’t you a fierce and independent nymph? I’ll leave you to it.

Eurydice: Wait. And what about the bodies? You’re not taking them?

Hades: I could.

Eurydice: Then? 

Hades: I wouldn’t dare to take all this fun away from you.

Eurydice: Fuck. So what, I’m stuck with them now?

Hades: Unless.

Eurydice: Unless, what?

Hades: … you wise up.

 

7.

Orpheus:

From the platform of wide open eyes

The fear takes off

Startled hearts don’t fly that high

So we just watch is going

The sky is greedy tonight.

Any change, love? 

 

Schedules that kept us apart

All vanished in the morning

Maps were rewritten

And I quite like the new style

Especially the new heights.

And context.

 

Let’s just wait here a while

Putting this feeling into the boxes

Huge expectations

Neatly on the bottom

Giddiness closer to the walls.

Order. Order.

 

Eurydice: Yeah, I can live with that.

 

8.

Hades:

I don't know why but i have the slight impression these are the last days of mankind

can't have a happy ending

an earthquake in Italy

a nuclear winter

and they got a castle, went on a honeymoon and died of an unknown yet disease that will put mankind for the next 200 years in turmoil

the end

 

let's be realistic

there is a whole lotta shit coming

but I’m getting prepared

ready for everything

moonwashed

stonewashed

and ragged

facing it all with a smile

pushing until it turns into a grin

i’ll to race a car down to bombay

take another ride on the ferris wheel

play call of duty: modern warfare 6

finish that crime story about first christians

but first finish this bottle of wine

no need to waste a good wine

 

9.

Hades: Wild beasts?

Orpheus: What?

Hades: Your (points at the arm – still bearing Eurydice’s bloody signature)

Orpheus: Ah. No that’s just… Labours of love.

Hades: Really?

Orpheus: Don’t get any ideas, nothing kinky. (beat) It’s not even human blood.

Hades: Well, now I’m reassured.   

Orpheus: Only making it worst, am I?

Hades: Don’t mind me, I’m just messing. But I would cover it if I were you.

Orpheus: Thanks man. (beat) I’m not ashamed or something.

Hades: No, of course not.

Orpheus: It’s all still in development, you know? Casual like.

Hades: But you’re already stamped.

Orpheus: It’s nothing/

Hades: No, naturally.

Orpheus: Do you think… ?

Hades: No, I’m sure it’s nothing. Just a bit of fun, right?

Orpheus: Right. (beat) Are you from…?

Hades: Just passing by.

Orpheus: Ok.

Hades: I find that it’s sometimes it’s useful to get an outsider’s perspective on things.

Orpheus: True.

Hades: Somebody uninvolved.

Orpheus: Objective?

Hades: Precisely.

Orpheus: It’s just that me and Eurydice/

Hades: Eurydice?

Orpheus: What, you know her?

Hades: We all know Eurydice.

Orpheus: What do you mean? You said you’re just passing by?

Hades: You’re so right, and I have to get back on track.

Orpheus: Sure, but could you just/

Hades: We’re good, right?

Orpheus: Yeah, but/

Hades: Nothing to worry about, remember!

Orpheus: I wasn’t/

Hades: Give her my best!

Orpheus: I wasn’t worried!

 

10.

Orpheus: Maybe your crazy dreams aren’t so undeserved, after all.

Eurydice: Deserved? Is this what it is, some kind of punishment?

Orpheus: The way it all happened/

Eurydice: You didn’t seem to mind then!

Orpheus: I knew it was just too easy.

Eurydice: So what? (beat) I’m centuries old, Orpheus, what did you imagine?

Orpheus: I just want to know where I stand.  

Eurydice: Do you, really?

Orpheus: It’s not about being the first/

Eurydice: Then what?

Orpheus: Why don’t you ever come to my place?

Eurydice: To the palace?

Orpheus: It’s always me coming here.

Eurydice: I though you like it here?

Orpheus: Yes, but you never even offered!

Eurydice: Are we negotiating a business deal now? I’m busy here, ok?

Orpheus: Doing cleaning lady’s shifts (pointing at the girls)?

Eurydice: You think I like it? (quieter) You’ve promised to fix it.

Orpheus: Yes, I know, I will.

Eurydice: The one thing that I’ve actually asked you for, and you’ve promised. Not a song, not even showing up on time. You said that you’re a king and…

Orpheus: A very good kind actually. Just superb.  

Eurydice: Then look around! Aren’t these your citizens are hanging from my trees? Everything around me stinks of rotten flesh, I can’t even see the sun anymore through the corpses! Will you sort it out, or/

Orpheus: I’m really sorry. I whish I could simply say “yes”, sign some document.

Eurydice: Then do.

Orpheus: Cause I do have a huge reverence for your forest.

Eurydice: But?  

Orpheus: But it’s outside my jurisdiction.

Eurydice: What? You’re not allowed to send the cleaners beyond the city walls?

Orpheus: Well, not exactly, but even for that I would need a permit from-

Eurydice: You said that you’re a great king. Superb.

Orpheus: But these girls – they are not murdered, they do it themselves. Imagine if we do cut them down. Who's to stop new ones from coming?

Eurydice: Then keep the rest alive.

Orpheus: How? How do I keep them alive? Do I offer them a behavioural therapy? Pottery classes?

Eurydice: Sure. Whatever it takes.

Orpheus: Your care for them is admirable.

Eurydice: Care? Nagh.. But I didn’t sign up for a life in a muggy graveyard, tripping over bloodless limbs at every turn.

Orpheus: But this is a really delicate matter. If they were men, then maybe… maybe I could just give an order and lock them all up. For a while. But with young girls? How would it look? Whatever I do I’d be called an arrogant chauvinist.

Eurydice: Why?

Orpheus: The goddesses… They’ve gotten so sensitive recently. I can already see the hash-tags. “Stay away from our girls”, “Our death, our decision”. Even my mother/

Eurydice: What are you going to do about the epidemic?

Orpheus: Epidemic is such a strong word. I’d say it’s a craze. It will pass with time.

Eurydice: How can you know that?

Orpheus: That’s the thing. We know nothing for sure. And that’s why we need to better to be really careful. And I’d really appreciate you advice on this actually. I’m just a simple “forest enthusiast” – though in some circles I am know as an “expert” – but you are the one who really understands the problem.

Eurydice: The forest is not the problem.

Orpheus: No, of course, you’re absolutely right. But we have to start somewhere.

Eurydice: I guess.

Orpheus: Marry me.

Eurydice: Where did that come from?  

Orpheus: It’s an order.

Eurydice: You’re joking.

Orpheus: You wanted me to act like a king.

Eurydice: Didn’t we talk about/

Orpheus: Don’t you like being ruled?

Eurydice: I’m not your citizen!

Orpheus: Are you a terrorist, Eurydice?

Eurydice: What? No!

Orpheus: An anarchist?

Eurydice: No!

Orpheus: But you do have a problem with royal authority?

Eurydice: I just asked you to use your royal authority!

Orpheus: Then come with me. I did make your nightmares go away, didn’t I?

Eurydice: For a night.

Orpheus: Let’s make it “all night”.

Eurydice: I belong to the forest.

Orpheus: But your life in here is impossible.

Eurydice: Only since your human trash swings in there.

Orpheus: I can’t save everybody. But I can save you. 

Eurydice: Do I need saving?

Orpheus: I didn’t mean it like that...

Eurydice: Aren’t you full of yourself.

Orpheus: I don’t want you to stay here.

Eurydice: Thought you’re a forest enthusiast? 

Orpheus: I also know what’s going on in here. All this… live. Whispers, hatching, shape-shifting. No structure, no order. Everybody with everybody…

Eurydice: What are you talking about?

Orpheus: And the gods!

Eurydice: Like you?

Orpheus: No! The other! You know what I’m talking about. I’ve heard the stories. They are not on our side. They will get you in a form of a swan, a smelly old goat, a lion or a golden rain. Do you really want to end up kidnapped or raped or turned into a pile of rocks?

Eurydice: I know how to take care of myself.

Orpheus: It doesn’t need to be a struggle.

Eurydice: I can’t just abandon/

Orpheus: You’re not. I’ll see what I can do about this. But you have to give me time. Trust me. 

Eurydice: I’d like to but…

Orpheus: I have pool.

Eurydice: Amazing.  

Orpheus: And a rose garden.

Eurydice: Lucky me.

Orpheus: I’ll finally write that song about you.

Eurydice: Wait, so the last one wasn’t about me?

Orpheus: Yeah, in general. But you deserve better than a standard romantic bullshit. Something about who you really are, what you really stand for. Something about your mission.

Eurydice: My mission?

Orpheus: The girls. How you’re trying to save them.

Eurydice: I am, I guess.

Orpheus: This is how the change starts, you know.

Eurydice: By getting a guy on board?

Orpheus: By creating a story! To give it some traction.

Eurydice: I was thinking rather about stopping things/

Orpheus: Will you help me to help you?

Eurydice: That’s not exactly how I imagined it.  

Orpheus: Life surprises us, doesn’t it? This morning I thought, that it’d be another depressing day in a plague-overrun kingdom, and now I’ll be moving in with a most delightful creature in Greek mythology! (beat) You’ll come with me, won’t you?

Eurydice: And we’ll make a plan?

Orpheus: Yes, a strategy! I have to learn so much about you/

Eurydice: About the forest, you mean? 

Orpheus: The forest, exactly! You have the expertise/

Eurydice:

Orpheus:

Eurydice: I? I come from the warm, sticky and patient resin, from centuries of breathing in the sun and cosmic energy from exploding stars and nebular storms. Does that help you?

Orpheus: Yes, that’s great! See? People in the palace never say things like that. 

Eurydice: But do you know what I mean?

Orpheus: You can explain all of this to me at home. We have plenty of time. 

 

11.

Eurydice:

In the dream.

I die.

Over and over.

This has to stop.

 

 

12.

Hades: Well don't you look as pretty as a picture.

Eurydice: You scared me!

Hades: A lot of people say that to me, I don't know why...

Eurydice: Who died? Tell me it's his mother?

Hades: Can't I just drop by to see a pal.

Eurydice: Not today Hades.

Hades: Nice place. Or should I say- palace.

Eurydice: I'm sort of in the middle of something.

Hades: This is quite a turnaround for you, don't you think?

Eurydice: I don’t actually. I don't think much at all. Why would I? Whenever I open my mouth around here they say that I’m charming. That’s hardly useful information, is it?

Hades: No. Didn't think he'd be your style.

Eurydice: He? Who mentioned he?

Hades: Oh I'm sorry. Is it 'his Majesty'? 'His highness'? 'Your royal kinglyness'?

Eurydice: Careful Hades, you're almost sounding bitter. I was just saying the servants...They take a bit of getting used to. Orpheus is great.

Hades: Of course he is.

Eurydice: He’s so positive! You know he just walks around all day singing my name.

Hades: Mispronouncing it, I bet. With an Italian accent?

Eurydice: He has an incredible touch. I didn’t even think I could feel this way.

Hades: Aha.

Eurydice: And he’s so happy all the time! Totally amused with everything I say and do.

Hades: Probably because he realized you’re bonkers.

Eurydice: His skin smells of fresh bread when I kiss it

Hades: Aha.

Eurydice: … and. He's kind. A good observer. Clear-headed. Matter-of-fact man. He would never say he loved something. Instead he would describe in details its nature. This is gold, and this is copper. This is funny this is not. This is a wedding ring, Eurydice, marry me. No mixed messages. 

Hades: Sounds dull. 

Eurydice: Can't you just be happy for me?

Hades: “The only thing I care in life is to be adored”. If you can say this from the bottom of your heart. Then I buy it. If not, I’m getting you out of here and putting you on a plane to Las Vegas, straight away. You’d just need to borrow me some cash first though. I’m skint.

Eurydice: Why wouldn’t I want to be loved?

Hades:  Cause, you’ve been missing out on things for years, and now you’re settling down for a Disney story.

Eurydice: It’s not/

Hades: Aren’t you a like princess here?

Eurydice: No!

Hades: Everything served on a plate, no need to make any decisions.

Eurydice: It was my decision!

Hades: A court full of yes-men, nobody to challenge you/

Eurydice: Actually, if I were wrong, Orpheus will always tell me that. The other day, we were walking through the garden and saw a young man cutting off a huge olive tree branch with a sword. Really getting into it. Lashing and chopping. A tree! I was about to run at the man and rip his hands off at him when Orpheus tapped my shoulder. Very gently he said, 'He’s the son of our treasurer. If you kill him the treasurer will look for revenge and one day we’ll be found in or bed with our throats slit”. And then I understood. Things are complicated. I took his hand and we moved on. I didn’t think about it that way, I said. 

Hades: You’re just getting soft.

Eurydice: I’m not.

Hades: Wide Justice.

Eurydice: What?

Hades: Eurydice. It means wide justice. At least it used to.

Eurydice: I know what my name means.

Hades: Do you now?

Eurydice: It’s much more complicated than you think.

Hades: Mmmm. I never thought about it this way.

Eurydice: You should go.

Hades: What, I'm not invited to the wedding? That's rude. You might want to learn some better manners if you're going to marry a king. 

Eurydice: He likes my manners just fine. He says I'm not like anyone else he's ever met.

Hades: Aren’t you curious? How are things at home at so on?

Eurydice: Ok, fine. Have you seen my tree recently?

Hades: Oh yes. 

Eurydice: How is it?

Hades: Just fabulous.

Eurydice: Really?

Hades: Absolutely spectacular. Simply blooming. 

Eurydice: Blooming? In the autumn?

Hades: I mean, sagging with fruit.

Eurydice: Fruit ? It’s a bloody oak!?

Hades: Oh yeah. Actually, when you think about it. It is quite a strange fruit.

Eurydice: O fuck.

Hades: “O fuck” is right.

Eurydice: Are they still…?

Hades: What do you think?

Eurydice: I wasn’t /

Hades: … looking, yes. But that doesn’t mean that the world around you has just disappeared.

Eurydice: You know that I came here to fix it!

Hades: You must be very proud of yourself then.

Eurydice: I’ve talked to Orpheus! He said that it will go away with time. We need to be patient and understanding. That they will come to their senses.

Hades: While he…...

Eurydice: Well, what can he do? He’s just a king, a clerk basically.

Hades: Orpheus? Just a clerk?

Eurydice:  A lovely clerk.

Hades: Eurydice, open your eyes. The man moves rocks with his singing and then says that calming down few hysterical teenagers is beyond him?

Eurydice: How can compare?

Hades: Oh, sorry, am I being simplistic again?

Eurydice: Hades/

Hades: Anyway, better count your maids before you go to sleep.

 

Orpheus: Eurydice? Eurydice??

Eurydice: Hades, go!

Hades: You've got a twig. Look. In your hair. Let me get it.

Orpheus: Oh. Hello.

Hades: Hey man.

Orpheus: What are you doing here? Who died? It's not my mum is it?

Eurydice: No. No. He's-

Hades: Just a twig. Got it. See. 

Orpheus: Right-

Hades: Better be off. Got a lot of paperwork these days. Really busy time. 

Eurydice: Paperwork?

Hades: Easy on the champagne you. You've got to watch this one...(barely audible) It's not going to stop till you wise up.

Orpheus: What did he want?

Eurydice: Nothing. He just wanted to wish me luck.

Orpheus: I didn't realise he was a friend...

Eurydice: Hardly a friend. He used to come to the forest a lot. On business. You know, murdered merchants, wayward peasants frozen to death… And then the girls, obviously.

Orpheus: Of course.

Eurydice: But there’s one thing/

Orpheus: You’ll tell me all about your friends later, ok? I brought you shoes. 

Eurydice: I though I asked for wine? 

Orpheus: You need shoes. 

Eurydice: I need shoes? 

Orpheus: Don’t worry, there’s nothing to be ashamed of. Nobody will know that they are not yours. My auntie got this pair from a very discrete maid. 

Eurydice: Yeah, right, I’ll go grab the wine myself, you want some? 

Orpheus: hold on a second, what’s wrong? 

Eurydice: I’m perfectly fine, thank you. 

Orpheus: Just put them on, please. If you don’t know how, I can help you. 

Eurydice: Of course I know how.

Orpheus: Well then? 

Eurydice: I don’t need them, Orpheus. 

Orpheus: You might not be familiar with the etiquette but just think a moment, what if you step on something, cut your little feet? 

Eurydice: I’m fine. 

Orpheus: I’ll just leave them here, ok? You do it in your own time when you feel ready. I know this is all a big change for you, I’m just trying to make it easy for the both of us. 

Eurydice: I don’t need them. 

Orpheus: I really understand. Come when you’re ready.

 

13.

Eurydice:

One decision doesn’t change who you are. Does it? 

The echo in this place is useless.

(puts on the shoes)

 

14.

Wedding vows

 

Orpheus:

I’m a son.

What I understand by son.

I understand that there’s an order. That some things come before others. That some things are the result of others.

I’m a direct descendant of gods and goddesses of muses and kings. This is where I begin. This is what I have to challenge.

This girl is what I don’t have and what I don’t understand.

This girl will define me.

 

Eurydice:

I come from is a long line of buds, roots and stems, always finding their way through the obstacle. Growing tenaciously through the walls and fences and stop signs and amendments.

Nature will always find its way.

I will find my way through this man

 

15.

Hades:

i heard the bad guys won the war

don't laugh

but i started to write a long letter

to the leader of the left party

offering him my support

virtual citizenship

in the city that never sleeps

i don't have 2 children and a mortgage to pay

i can afford illumination

it was one of the moments when my body is producing drugs

actually i’m just too old for a normal career

the storm is approaching

from the land of my childhood

i won't save the world

i’ll work part time as the charismatic populist

and then i’ll get fat

 

16.

Eurydice: You’re up already?

Orpheus: I missed you. Coffee?

Eurydice: Thanks. Would you show me now how you do it now?

Orpheus: How I do what?

Eurydice: Your lyre? How do you make it move rocks?

Orpheus: You want to move rocks?

Eurydice: Show me.

Orpheus: Where did that come from?

Eurydice: Your hands are so soft.

Orpheus:  Yes?

Eurydice: Like little girl’s.

Orpheus: I appreciate that you’re trying to be charming.

Eurydice: What? That’s just normal, I guess. You grew up in the palace.

Orpheus: You’re changing the subject.

Eurydice: I was just wondering/

Orpheus: Yes?

Eurydice: If it could be a solution.

Orpheus: To what? 

Eurydice: To the plague.

Orpheus: I’ve told you – it’s a fashion, a mania!

Eurydice: Even if, the authorities can’t just leave it like this/

Orpheus: Ah, no, this is not a political thing.

Eurydice: Is it not? Because it’s not about money? Or about old white men? I can find hundreds or reason why it’s political! Pollution of the environment – one! Increase in the demographic gap – two! Economy, maternity, health/

Orpheus: Look at you, all loquacious and aware! Couple of days in the palace/

Eurydice: You’re making fun of me.

Orpheus: No, of course not, sorry. But you cannot force people to live!

Eurydice: Then don’t give them reasons to die!

Orpheus: I’m giving them reasons to die?

Eurydice: I don’t know. Well… Yes! Evidently. They are all coming from here, aren’t they?

Orpheus: You live here now too, look around. What is so horrible? What would you change? If I cut my coffee budget will it safe lives? If I melt my crown into energy bracelets will it save lives?

Eurydice: I don’t want to argue. I just thought that the solution might be pretty simple.

Orpheus: What? If I hypnotize everybody wit the lyre? Once thing I’ve learned is that playing a hero is not worth it.

Eurydice: You’ve promised me a song! A story! You’ve promised it to be a start of something.

Orpheus: It’s not so simple.

Eurydice: But you’ve said/

Orpheus: I wanted you out of that creepy place, all right?

Eurydice: Why wouldn’t you try it at least?

Orpheus: You don’t understand. People would do anything to listen to the lyre. They take it… very personally.

Eurydice: What do you mean?

Orpheus: They get attached. They tell you, you change their lives and want you to take responsibility for it. All the expectations, tears, threats, emotional blackmail. I haven’t touched the lyre for years.

Eurydice: What exactly does it do then?

Orpheus: It opens something in you. Makes you want to be the best version of yourself. Makes you see your situation clearly.

Eurydice: Sounds beautiful.

Orpheus: It’s freaking dangerous.

Eurydice: How?

Orpheus: What if the truth is not great?

Eurydice: Still.

Orpheus:  You want a story? Here it goes. Did you know I was one of the Argonauts?

Eurydice: I know this one.  There was Jason… and the others. There’s no mention of any Orpheus.

Orpheus: There isn’t any more.

Eurydice: But there used to be?

Orpheus: Yes.

Eurydice: You know, what? Let’s just have sex, would we?

Orpheus: What, you don’t believe me, because I don’t act like an aggressive psychopath?

Eurydice: I just tried to imagine that.

Orpheus: I was there. With Jason and Nestor, with Castor and Pollux. For six years we sailed together. And it felt great. Whenever the ship caught a good wind I would stand on the bow and let my breath wrestle with the salty blows. I would feel an itch all over my body whenever we moored at a new island. Often there was danger too, and that was fine, I was up for it. I cannot even count the times when I saved their asses.

Eurydice: How?

Orpheus: The lyre. It tamed the famous clashing rocks, which would crush any ship that tried to sneak in between them. My singing let us go through smoothly. My singing silenced the Sirens. My singing helped us cheat death.

Eurydice: Cheat death? So how come you are not in the story?

Orpheus: After the mission was over we would meet every year or so, to drink and tell the stories of our adventures.

When I became a king I had to skip our reunion. Unease at the borders, new monetary system. Finally three years later I managed to join the party.

I couldn’t wait. I sat with the guys at the table, and listened to the stories. But the stories had changed. Suddenly there was a pigeon flying in between the clashing rock, saving the day. A pigeon, really? How? From where? And the Sirens island was not even mentioned. As if we had never even gone that way.

I couldn’t understand what happened. Sure I was a king now and as for them - Sure, I was doing better, but so what? We were all sons of kings and gods. There was nothing holding them back.

I left before the meeting even ended.

Eurydice: At least you have some beautiful memories of rapes and pillages.

Orpheus: Wait. I came back home.

Eurydice: Feeling sorry for yourself…

Orpheus: No. But then it got me.

Eurydice: What?

Orpheus: The stories that I loved so much. What they were really about? What we really did! Once there was no chorus of other voices chanting our victories, I really heard it. I heard the screams. I saw the blood. Faces of the Lemnos women. Medea chopping her brother and her boys into bits. Beheaded kings, scattered corpses. Bones. Flesh. Sculls. It was not a heroic adventure story, it was just/

Eurydice: Tragic.

Orpheus: Yes. Unthinkable. The shame. The repulsion. I thought I’d go insane. How can one live with a memory like this? I was not the hero.

Eurydice: And you blame the lyre?

Orpheus: No. Of course not. I blame myself. My name means “the darkness of the night” but I always thought I could resist this darkness. Evidently I couldn’t. It will always be in me.

But this is what I mean. You can use lyre as a party trick. You can play lullabies and ballads.

But you can’t give it power over other people’s lives.

Eurydice: You’re not an aggressive psychopath, Orpheus.

Orpheus: I did act like one.

Eurydice: You have nothing to worry about. I love you.

Orpheus: I just thank gods that I’ve turned into a boring sap now and nobody will ever associate me with the Argonauts stories.

Eurydice: You cannot keep avoiding the one thing that makes you…

Orpheus: What? Interesting?

Eurydice: I didn’t say that.

Orpheus: But this is what you wanted to say?

Eurydice: Orpheus, come on.

Orpheus: You really think that I’m just some pathetic bureaucrat?

Eurydice: I’m your wife.

Orpheus: Do you think I’m boring? 

Eurydice: No, of course not!

Orpheus: That I’m a control freak?

Eurydice: You just like things to be in the right order, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Orpheus: Not like Hades. With his hobo chic and old cars and Indian coffee…

Eurydice: Italian coffee/

Orpheus: Better then the palace coffee. 

Eurydice: I’m just saying that you cannot escape your dark past. It will hunt you! It will get you when you least suspect it. Orpheus, I’ve seen these things happen, please…

Orpheus: That’s funny.

Eurydice: What is?

Orpheus: That it’s coming from you. 

Eurydice: Because, what? I’m a wildling and I know nothing?

Orpheus: No. Because you did it yourself.

Eurydice: I didn’t/

Orpheus: You had a problem on your doorstep so you’ve moved a doorstep. Which by the way was the only rational thing to do. 

Eurydice: You’re right.

Orpheus: Where are you going?

Eurydice: Nothing, don’t worry. I just need to MOVE something again.

 

17.

Orpheus: Would you like to lie down with me?

Eurydice: Yes. Yes, let’s do that. Like the first time.

Orpheus: Our heads touching each other softly.

Eurydice: Our breath in a perfect unison.

Orpheus: No thought.

Eurydice: No sound.

Orpheus: No desire.

Eurydice: Perfect silence.

Orpheus: You fidget a lot recently.

Eurydice: I’ll be still. Is that ok? 

Orpheus: Too far.

Eurydice: My hand.

Orpheus: Oh? And now?

Eurydice: Not quite there.

Orpheus: Stop fidgeting.

Eurydice: I’m not.

Orpheus: I don’t feel it ...

Eurydice: Me neither…

Orpheus: It’s getting cold.

Eurydice: Yes. I guess.

Orpheus: I’ll need to do some work for tomorrow.

Eurydice: OK.

Orpheus: Don’t wait for me.

Eurydice: OK.

 

Orpheus: She goes out at night.

Eurydice: He cannot sleep.

Orpheus:  She should know where she belongs now.

 

Eurydice:  I know where I come from.

Orpheus:  If she wants to run away, then why does she keep coming back?

Eurydice:  The woods never change. I enter the woods and I see exactly what is what. No metaphors, just bold, wild life.

Orpheus:  I wrote her a lullaby to make her stay. Then I saw her sneaking back to bed in the morning, leaves in her hair, blood under her nails.

Eurydice:  I cannot just leave them there to rot. 

Orpheus:  When she comes back I pretend to wake up and offer her fruits. She takes some but I can see it’s only to make me feel needed.

Eurydice:  I see that he suffers. This is not what he expected.

Orpheus:  I just don’t understand.

Eurydice:  Orpheus! He doesn’t hear me.

Orpheus:  I try not to bother her.

Eurydice:  He avoids me.

Orpheus: Maybe if I give her more space…

Eurydice:  Did he forget why I came here in the first place? Did he think I’d change?

Orpheus:  I cannot give her what she needs.

Eurydice: I didn’t abandon them. 

Orpheus:  But I need her so much.

Eurydice:  He must think that I’m crazy. That I’m dangerous.

Orpheus: During the day it’s all fine. We walk through the garden.

Eurydice: It’s not true that those who save one life save the world.  

Orpheus: Maybe if she had something of her own, something to care for. A bird. A baby.

Eurydice: We still need to fix it.

Orpheus:  If we had a child she couldn’t keep disappearing.

Eurydice:  I had a dream. I saw all the girls from the woods alive, happy, playing. I was so relieved. I started to laugh. I wanted to run and dance with them. But then the girls grinned at me. They had teeth like vipers. One of them bit me.

Orpheus: I couldn’t stand it any longer.

Eurydice:  They didn’t want me with them. They didn’t want me.

Orpheus:  I was trying... I couldn’t… 

Eurydice: Orpheus, this has to stop.

Orpheus: I did everything right.

Eurydice: I believe in you.

Orpheus: There’s nothing in the world I care more about.

Eurydice: Fix this!

Orpheus: I’d do anything for her.

Eurydice: Fix this!!!

Orpheus: Go anywhere for her.

Eurydice: Would you?

Orpheus: Anywhere.

Eurydice: It’s not about me.

Orpheus: I will fix it.

 

18.

Eurydice: Why is the door locked?

Orpheus: A regular safety procedure.

Eurydice: No, this is not regular.

Orpheus: I finally understood that you were right.

Eurydice: Was I?

Orpheus: The girls cannot be trusted with their actions.

Eurydice: So what? You’ve decided to lock everybody up?

Orpheus: Wasn’t that your own suggestion?

Eurydice: No!

Orpheus: If the memory serves right/

Eurydice: You cannot just…  It doesn’t solve the problem!

Orpheus: What problem?

Eurydice: The hung girls!

Orpheus: What hung girls?

Eurydice: In the forest!

Orpheus: There are no hung girls in the forest.

Eurydice: Are you crazy?

Orpheus: What? Do you see any now?

Eurydice: The trees were just sagging with them! You said you do something, investigate/

Orpheus: How? There is no evidence.

Eurydice: Of course there is.

Orpheus: There was. Once. But you’ve buried all the bodies.

Eurydice: What?

Orpheus: You gave them a clear passage to Hades. And now they’re all gone. Nothing left. As if nothing ever happened. Sorted. Frankly, I should thank you for this.

Eurydice: Don’t put it on me! It was the right thing to do.

Orpheus: Maybe.

Eurydice: We have to bring them back then.

Orpheus: What for? Now it’s all in the past.

Eurydice: Let’s dig it out.

Orpheus: We had enough turmoil, didn’t we? It’s a perfect solution.

Eurydice: With all the girls locked and all the bodies gone?

Orpheus: Yes, thank you again for sorting that out.

Eurydice: I’m not a part of this.

Orpheus: Technically. You are. But don’t worry. It’s a good thing. We can finally move on.

Eurydice: Well. I can’t. I’m locked in here, apparently.

Orpheus: It’s only a temporal solution. Once you calm down/

Eurydice: You have to go to the Hades and bring the bodies back!

Orpheus: Bodies? Don’t objectify…

Eurydice: The girls! 

Orpheus: Impossible.

Eurydice: Why?

Orpheus: What exactly would you like to bring from there? Speechless shadows? With no memory of what happened?

Eurydice: They won’t remember?

Orpheus: No.

Eurydice: So who will?

Orpheus: Once you calm down? Nobody. Hopefully. And our life will get back to normal!

Eurydice: We need bodies!

Orpheus: Oh? Will I just go and kill you some girls then?

Eurydice: You know what I’m talking about.

Orpheus: You’re trying to make things worst.

Eurydice: It cannot get any worst than this.

Orpheus: Why care for anybody like this anyway?

Eurydice: Like what?

Orpheus: Weak.

Eurydice: Weak?

Orpheus: Too weak to live. Too cowardly to endure. Escaping the hardship.

Eurydice: Is that what you think of them?

Orpheus: I’m just saying that they could have made more effort/

Eurydice: Is that what you think of me?

Orpheus: What? Of course not!

Eurydice: I could have stayed in the forest, but I’ve moved here. Escaped. Moved the doorstep.

Orpheus: That’s totally different.

Eurydice: How?

Orpheus: You just couldn’t resist my charm.

Eurydice: Sweet. Leave me alone. 

Orpheus: Fine. But do you promise you’ll get some rest.

Eurydice: Oh, don’t worry about it. I definitely will.

 

Eurydice:

You will not get to identify yourself with the main character.

You will die from the bullet not even shot in your direction.

 

And a nightfall is not another shaken, not stirred movie you watched alone and you don’t get to identify yourself with a hero in this.

In this you have no lines and you die in the first ten minutes somewhere in the background from a bullet that was not even shot in your direction.

 

As she speaks, the music gets louder shadows of hung women re-emerge.

She joins them/ hangs herself among them.

Now her body has become the proof that the tragedy did happen.

 

 

19.

Orpheus looking for Eurydice. Projection

Orpheus:

Fucking trees. We should have cut them all down years ago. They say that at night these car lights that lure you into your death. Shiny things mess with your brain, leave you transfixed, dumbstruck. Rabbits in the headlights, dears paralyzed on the road. But no. No. It’s trees. They make you feels calm and safe in their shadow. Your sight softens. Your mind wanders of. Just let them lead you. And before you know you’re in their arms, with you neck and heart broken. It’s not the light in the tunnel that kills you it’s the tunnel itself. Fucking trees. What did Eurydice say? I was born from a tree. I will die with a tree. Touch my tree.

Where did you go, you little fool? Do you want me to chase you? Oh, I will chase you. You thought I wouldn’t, didn’t you? Fuck, I wish it was winter. Where are your traces Eurydice?

Musicians: Go.

Orpheus:  Strange feeling, as if I was about to turn back.

Musicians: Faster.

Orpheus: A goal.

Musicians: Deeper.  

Orpheus: A storm approaches from the land of my childhood. My thoughts become heavy. I run. I’m on the outskirts of the forest. How did I get here? I dash through the darkness. Birds gather over me.

Musicians:  Watch out.

Orpheus: Larks. Hawks. Swans. Nightingales. Parrots. They glide next to me. The nature thickens around me. Valleys. Rivers. Mountains. More and more flowers around. Butterflies above them – countless.

Musicians: Focus.

Orpheus: Yes, yes, focus now. Where is she? I run. I see people through the branches. Tired like yesterday, like tomorrow, like always. It doesn’t concern me anymore. The birds circle closer and closer.

Musicians: Hurry up.

Orpheus: I dash through days and nights now, not knowing anymore who am I chasing or what am I escaping from.

Musicians:Wake up.

Orpheus: I run. I need to get her. It’s so quiet around here. Only the crickets and stars. Will I ever get out of this forest and darkness?!

Musicians: Trust me.

Orpheus: When did my shadow grow so long and black? Who is he? This lonely hum of the forest drives me insane. I scream!

Musicians: You’re in.

 

20.

On stage and on the screen – by the end of the scene there’s an asynchrony, then the video gets looped.

 

Orpheus: Eurydice?

Hades: Not this way

Orpheus: What?

Hades: You are going the wrong way.

Orpheus: How do you know?

Hades: (shrug)

Orpheus: What are you doing here?

Hades: (shrug)

Orpheus: Were you following me?

Hades: Maybe. 

Orpheus: Who told you to?

Hades: (yawn)

Orpheus: Fucking weirdoes. (wants to leave). Stay away, do you hear me?

Hades: Pussy.

Orpheus: What did you say?

Hades: Don’t hit me, don’t/

Orpheus: I’m not… What is your problem?!

Hades: What is your problem?

Orpheus: It’s a total nuthouse.

Hades: It’s hell, did you forget?

Orpheus: Right. And I’m getting out of here.

Hades: Do you trust her?

Orpheus: What?

Hades: Would you give her your phone unlocked?

Orpheus: My phone?

Hades: Your keys? Your passwords? Would you let her see her ex?

Orpheus: (grabs him) Ok, where’s the wire? Where is it? I know it’s a test, right, so where is it? Here? (shouts to his/her cleavage) Yes, I trust you, Eurydice. My love, are you there? Do you want my phone? Here it is! My password? HackerProof123. What else do you want? Is it about my mother? I’ll tell her to stay away. Just come home, baby! Come back, please!

Hades: (amused) There’s no wire, you idiot. Let me go (Orpheus lets go).

Orpheus: No wire? But they can still hear everything, right?

Hades: Listen, there’re no dark forces eavesdropping here, ok?

Orpheus: Well, what do you want then?

Hades: Nothing. You seemed nervous. Thought you could use a chat.

Orpheus: Of course I’m nervous, I’m out of my bloody mind here!

Hades: If you trust her, everything will be fine.

Orpheus: So you do know!

Hades: Me? No.

Orpheus: What do you know about me?

Hades: I can see… that you are clueless. And that you want to prove something.

Orpheus: You are trying to put it on me.

Hades: Put what?

Orpheus: I don’t know! You apparently think I did something to Eurydice.

Hades: O, yeah?

Orpheus: She left…

Hades: Aha…

Orpheus: But it’s not my fault.

Hades: Ok, now you are just boring.

Orpheus: What? Why am I even talking to you?

Hades: I don’t know.

Orpheus: You know nothing.

Hades: So?

Orpheus: I’m going.

Hades: Then go.

Orpheus: Fine.

Hades: Fine.

Orpheus: Ugh.

Hades: Not this way.

Orpheus: Are you starting again?

Hades: I’m not the one who keeps choosing the wrong way.

Orpheus: You don’t know where I’m heading!

Hades: Do you?

Orpheus: That’s it. I’m leaving.

Hades: Bye.

Orpheus: I am.

Hades: Adios.

Orpheus: So… This way?

Hades: I’m not talking to you.

Orpheus: O, come on now.

Hades: Bye, bye.

Orpheus: You’ve started!

Hades: Only trying to help.

Orpheus: Why would you help me?

Hades: Maybe I’m a fan?

Orpheus: Of what, of my singing?

Hades: Yeah, singing, why not. Sing to me.

Orpheus: Are you crazy? I don’t have time!

Hades: Sing to your fan! Sing, sing, sing, sing, sing!

Orpheus: No. No. You’re trying to trick me. 

Hades: Nope.

Orpheus: You want me to completely loose my mind.

Hades: Na-ah.

Orpheus: I’m going this way (opposite to what Hades suggested).

Hades: Of course you are.

Orpheus: Go to hell.

Hades: To hell? To hell?

 

21.

Eurydice:

I saw you turning your back on me.

You said it’s just a bad dream.

And there must be something wrong with the weather because I keep heaving this dream.

You said, you come back with a song.

You wanted to put me in a story.

But the old stories are already full of me, full of my whining and nagging and disappointment and being all kind of pain and nuisance.

I have already lost too many times. I don’t need another lament about it.

Time for your difficult second album.

The one in which my fury is not even heard, cause there’s nothing that you’ve broken in the first place.

I cannot be ambitious for you, but we’re in it together now.   

In this echo chamber.

I have only one note for you.

Only one broken record to play.  

Let us begin.