Students of classical studies take note: if you're heading to The Wilma Theater for some good old fashioned Greek mythology, prepare to be surprised. Pleasantly surprised, but surprised nonetheless.

Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice, now onstage at The Wilma, isn't just a revisionist retelling of the story of Orpheus's ill-fated wife. It's a complete re-imagining of the tale. One in which Eurydice, typically the silent, ill-fated object of Orpheus's love, takes centerstage. The concept smacks of feminism, but the execution is neither radical nor overtly political, unless you consider a play with a female lead to be one or both of those things. (Some people do.)

The title character in The Wilma's production (directed beautifully by Blanka Zizka with a fantastic, mostly a cappella original score by Toby Twining and performed by four vocalists and a cellist) is not the traditional heroine from Greek mythology. She is sympathetic to those around her and easily swayed by her emotions, yet she is also a true individual: an avid reader living in a genre (not an era—the play seems to be set more or less in the 1940s, not in Ancient Greece) full of un- or under-educated women. Eurydice as played by Merrit Janson is curious about life in a naive way that's sweet and refreshing rather than annoying. It's Orpheus (Benjamin Huber), the prototype for the Romantic hero, who is the weaker, more simpering of the pair. In many ways, it seems as if Eurydice, after her untimely death on her wedding night, would do better to stay with her father (Stephen Novelli) in the Underworld than to return to the land of the living with her husband.

But that's kind of the point: Eurydice isn't about mythology. It's about making difficult choices. It's about memory and love—platonic, romantic, parental—and loss in the purest and most painful sense. The frame of the original story is there, but to chalk the story up as nothing more than a fable is unfair to the playwright, the director, the composer, and the performers. (Not to mention Mimi Lien, the set designer who made a waterfall onstage.) It's a beautiful, touching evening of theatre in one act that makes you think, that makes you cry, and that stays with you long after the house lights come back up.
(As an aside, despite the mistaken impressions of two drunken theatre patrons and a near-sighted usher, I am not in the play. Apparently, I look like Erin Reilly the actress pictured on the right here. Because I didn't show up at the theatre in clown makeup, I'm not sure how these three people came to this decision—but Ms. Reilly and her fellow stones were great performers, so I'll take it as a compliment.)

Benjamin Huber as Orpheus and Merritt Janson as Eurydice in The Wilma Theater's production of Eurydice, closing June 1. Photo by Jim Roese.