Jean Anouilh drew on ancient literature several times in his career, most notably in his wonderful Antigone of 1942. He had also conveyed his disillusion the year before with Eurydice, in which he updated the classical myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Set in a French provincial railway-station snack bar in the 1930s, the play introduces us to itinerant fiddler Orpheus (Orlando Seale) and his over-the-hill, boozy dad (Edward de Souza). Members of a third-rate acting troupe arrive, including Eurydice (Amy Marston). Smitten with each other, Orpheus and Eurydice elope to a hotel bedroom. She is not the chaste girl he assumes, and she sneaks away only to be killed in a bus accident.
A mysterious Monsieur Henri, who is the agent of Death, promises to return her to the living if Orpheus can refrain from looking into her eyes until dawn. Orpheus feels he can gauge the truth about her earlier affair by peering into her eyes, whereupon she dies again. At M. Henri's urging, Orpheus kisses his sleeping father and willingly goes to his own death for a reunion with his beloved. It is Anouilh's thesis here, voiced by M. Henri near the end, that "only death provides the real climate for love." This production is presented by Straydogs, a new company founded only three years ago. And its director, Simon Godwin, is only two years out of college. But this is no amateurish or tentative show -- there is almost nothing to find fault with.
Top honors go to the M. Henri of Desmond Barrit, an actor of long experience. Anouilh envisioned a young man as Death's emissary, but the choice of Barrit is perfect. He speaks softly and slowly, and is the model of sly geniality. He also repeatedly has the play's best lines (e.g. "Fathers are always right -- even if they are fools," "There's just one thing about death no one knows: she's very kindhearted, horribly kindhearted -- she's afraid of tears and grief"). Seale and Marston are properly tender and rapt as the young lovers. The beret-topped de Souza is delightful as the hedonistic life-affirming father. Susan Tracy brings suitable hauteur to the role of the aging actress, and the smaller parts are in fine hands.
Peter Meyers' translation, commissioned by the BBC in 1985 for Anouilh's 75th birthday, is admirable. (Earlier productions in London and New York bore different titles: "Point of Departure" and "Legend of Lovers".)
