Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice: A Contemporary Myth Ara Vito Eurydice explores the universal truths within the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as retold by twenty-first century playwright Sarah Ruhl. Despite the sadness of the classical myth, the contemporary adaptation lends a sense of wonder and hope to the deeper themes of death, love, and loss. Through simplistic dialogue and a skillful reimagining of the time period to evoke the youthful innocence of the 1940s and 50s, Ruhl tells the story of a young woman who is caught between unity and disunity, romance and family, the world of life and the world of death. Without lessening the importance of the other characters, Ruhl artfully focuses on a female figure that has not been given a strong voice in previous adaptations, exploring the active inner life of a character that literary history has viewed as passive. This depiction of Eurydice, while whimsical and unorthodox, shows the power art holds to mirror the realities of the human condition. Myths are retold because they are true. They may not be factual, but there is something in them that speaks to us or helps us to explain lifeǯs mysteries—at the center, there must be something real or we would not continue to retell and reimagine these stories centuries later. DzEurydicedz by Sarah Ruhl is the story of two people who are Dza little too young and a little too in lovedz ȋʹȌ. Despite the sadness of the classic myth, the modern adaptation is full of imagery and illusion that lend a sense of wonder and hope to some of lifeǯs heaviest subjects—love, loss, and death. )t may be imaginative and even surreal at times, but it also conveys a sense of truth that makes it easy to connect with. Unity is an important part of the through‐action in this play—wholeness in life that is threatened by death and the fear of being alone. Despite the fracturing of Orpheus and Eurydiceǯs unity that takes place as a result of her death, they are brought together in the underworld by overcoming their fears. Unity is broken by fear, and in turn, unity can be restored by overcoming fear. Orpheus is constantly trying to reach Eurydice, while she is growing accustomed to her new life in the underworld and experiencing a new unity with her father at the same time that she is experiencing disunity from Orpheus. The great struggle she faces is trying to decide between staying with her father in the underworld or going back to the real world with her husband. The playǯs language, imagery, characters, and theme all serve to enhance this pattern and deepen the audienceǯs understanding of the pain of love and loss. The language in the play deepens the innocence and youth that is evoked by Orpheus and Eurydice. )t is simple and modern, with short sentences that seem very similar to the way we speak in modern day. Even with these brief sentences, both charactersǯ personalities come across. )t is clear that they have different perspectives in life—Orpheus loves music almost as much as he loves Eurydice; at times, he almost seems more caught up with his melodies than with her. She is more