ACT ONE

SCENE 1: IN A SMALL APARTMENT - LOVE SHOOK MY HEART

(The scene opens with EURYDICE cleaning and tidying the small space. We hear EURYDICE and her skirt amidst the sounds of the apartment (hum of various appliances, street sounds/traffic, heater, dishwasher/water in a sink, vacuum, sound of dishes). EURYDICE plays the skirt lifting the edges to find a tuning, listening in moments to her consonance with the space, there is a way that she is dueting with the space and enjoys her role in "tuning" and keeping things "in tune." EURYDICE might also be humming, in a sense of dueting with herself and the apartment a sense of musical joy and ease in her tethers, a musically fulfilling accessory. ORPHEA (a singer songwriter), cleans her lyrelike electronic instrument (the tape machine) and improvises a love song, "Love Shook My Heart" singing to EURYDICE.) 

(Lighting: Apartment space (center stage) lights fade up slowly and we see EURYDICE cleaning and tidying. The apartment is well lit, with a sense of sunlight through windows. It feels to be a warm, sunlit space.)

EURYDICE: How goes the new song, my love?

ORPHEA: The lyre is such a temperamental lady. Oh, I love her, but she eats batteries for breakfast and it might be time to replace some parts...

(ORPHEA continues tinkering.)

ORPHEA: Did I tell you I've been working on a new song, about you.

EURYDICE: Oh really, do say more.

ORPHEA: It is a love song, going on the next album, so far I only have the vocal line.

(EURYDICE finds a nice consonant spot in resonance with the skirt, she is relaxed, she possibly draws a stool near her to sit. She looks adoringly at ORPHEA. EURYDICE is able to change the timbre of her skirt as she lifts it, panning sounds and thickening timbre/rhythmic content some kind of a beat.) 

ORPHEA:
Love shook my heart
Like the Wind on the mountain
Troubling the Oak Trees

Your breath was the sea
The sky overhead, 
And in me,
In my veins, the stars.

We are equal with the gods, 
I, who sit across from you, 
Face to face, close enough to sip
Your voice, the sweetness

And yet what excites my mind
Your laughter glittering. So,
when I see you, for a moment, 
my voice goes
my tongue freezes

Fire, delicate fire, in the flesh.
Fire, delicate fire, in the flesh.
You burn me.
You burn me.
You burn me.
You burn me.

ORPHEA and EURYDICE (in duet):
Fire, delicate fire, in the flesh. 
Fire, delicate fire, in the flesh.
Fire, delicate fire, in the flesh.
Fire, delicate fire, in the flesh.
You burn me.

(EURYDICE joins as a loving duet in the final section. We feel the loving and passionate chemistry between the two.)

(Lights out) 

SCENE 2: IN A SMALL APARTMENT - AN INVITATION

(We hear EURYDICE's skirt fade in with the sounds of a hum (humming refrigerator, pinging phones, daily life folio))

(Lights fade in, same apartment space as Scene 1.)

ORPHEA:
An invitation! Love abounds! 
The wedding of the season and who do they want to perform? 
Me! 
It fits perfectly with touring; I'll be home that weekend and we can go together! 
They heard the new recording of "Love shook my heart" and requested it. It is perfect for a wedding! 

(EURYDICE continues cleaning and dusting and moving through the apartment, a kind of ritual of tuning, caretaking, which seems to hold the space together. EURYDICE is busy with the home maintenance and although pleased for ORPHEA, is distracted by her constant work on the home front.)

ORPHEA: Eury! Eury, sit a second! The house looks beautiful. 

(ORPHEA brings her to a stool to sit for a second. ORPHEA helps tune the skirt in this new location and gives EURYDICE a momentary back rub, then tunes the skirt again, unhappy with things being unsettled and also fixes her hair and outfit with a sense of wanting things just right. EURYDICE shakes ORPHEA off, tired and feeling anxious, she returns to her house work. She knows that these social performances, especially with these friends, make ORPHEA difficult. Also, in light of the fact that ORPHEA and EURYDICE are not married and have yet to talk about that next step, EURYDICE is not looking forward to the wedding. Her body language shows this anxiety, and her face holds a pleasant smile that isn't mirrored in her body. She hums agreement and it is unclear whether she is fully aware of the complexity and range of her feelings. ORPHEA is unaware of EURYDICE's discomfort or anxiety.)

ORPHEA:
Oh, I wonder what I should wear? 
I can't upstage the bride, but that one white dress is so stunning, that would be best and my hair, maybe up and back, or is that too severe for a wedding? 
I'll have see what their theme is, maybe flowers in my hair, floral? The song is florid "love shook my heart" (with more ornamentation) 
hmm I could do a version that is even more intricate. 

(ORPHEA turns, eyes flashing)

Can't you stand still? I just got an idea, ugh, I can't focus with you puttering! 

(ORPHEA harshly grabs EURYDICE and holds her still. EURYDICE becomes very stiff. This has clearly happened before. She freezes, barely breathing. There is both fear and anger in her posture, her face is quivering.) 

ORPHEA: (laughing it off)
Oh stop! Am I too rough?
You are such a scaredy cat. 
Just hold still for a second so that I can grab this melody. 
(She sings through an ornamented version of You Shook My Heart as she walks towards the tape machine and seems to forget completely about EURYDICE). 

(EURYDICE holds very still and then begins to breathe; she purses her lips exhaling through circled lips as if through a straw as if counting. There is a sadness by the end of the exhale, she slightly shakes and then her placid smile returns. She goes back to her routine, tuning and cleaning, humming, tuning and cleaning. You see her listening and able to enjoy ORPHEA's improvisation.)

(ORPHEA begins the tape machine and lights move from full on stage to spotlight on the tape machine. This transitions smoothly into Scene 3. Highlights the selfish focus of ORPHEA on her own music making.)

SCENE 3: IN A SMALL APARTMENT - LOVE SHOOK RETURN

(It is a love song for EURYDICE that, while extolling their love, simultaneously loops repeated phrases of control such as “only me” and “you cannot escape my love.” When the aria concludes, the lyre continues to repeat these phrases.)

(Begins with an improvisation on the tape machine approx. 3 minutes. EURYDICE sits quietly on the stool. Perhaps dusting a figurine, her hands are busy, but the skirt is still and tuned or even silent. It could be very dark onstage except for the tape machine spotlight.)

ORPHEA: 
Love, love, love, 
love, love, love,
love,

You burn me, 
I watch you,
I want you, 
to be only mine

(this repeats, building on the tape machine, creating a sound world, ORPHEA sings on top)

Love shook my heart
Like the Wind on the mountain
Troubling the Oak Trees

Your breath was the sea
The sky overhead, 
And in me,
In my veins, the stars.

We are equal with the gods, 
I, who sit across from you, 
Face to face, close enough to sip
Your voice, the sweetness

And, yes what excites my mind,
Your laughter glittering. So, 
When I see you, for a moment,
My voice goes, 
My tongue freezes.
Fire, delicate fire, in the flesh.
Blind, stunned, the sound of 
Thunder, my ears.

ORPHEA and EURYDICE (in duet): 
Fire, delicate fire, in the flesh.
Fire, delicate fire, in the flesh.
You burn me, 
You burn me,

Fire, delicate fire, in the flesh.
Fire, delicate fire, in the flesh.
Fire, delicate fire, in the flesh.
Fire, delicate fire, in the flesh.
You burn me

You Burn me 
I watch you 
I want you 
I want you to be mine
You Burn me
I watch you
I want you
I want you to be only mine, love

(Lights fade out (Tape Machine still playing)

(Through scene 4: We feel that both are becoming ungrounded the roles they play are not sufficient for their togetherness. Both becoming obsessive about their spaces, but this leads to them feeling more isolated and separate.)

SCENE 4: IN APARTMENT - SOCIAL MEDIA VIDEO LOVE SHOOK INDUSTRIAL

(Live performance creates a live Instagram post (video content) in real time behind ORPHEA. The sound is panned only front house speakers (or only quad stage setup). 

(Lighting is performance lighting - spotlight and color, although EURYDICE is on stage center, she is not lit. ORPHEA is in front, well lit, but we will have to see what works with the live video feed)

ORPHEA: 
(rubato - very free)
Love shook my heart
Like the Wind on the mountain
Troubling the Oak Trees

Your breath was the sea
The sky overhead, 
And in me,
In my veins, the stars.

(beat enters)
We are equal with the gods, 
I, who sit across from you, 
Face to face, close enough to sip
Your voice, the sweetness

And, yes what excites my mind,
Your laughter glittering. So, 
When I see you, for a moment,
My voice goes, 
My tongue freezes.
Fire, delicate fire, in the flesh.
Fire, Fire, Fire 
(Fire, Fire, Fire repeats and layers)

As the song builds, the sound expands to full house sound becoming ritualistic, ORPHEA as an oracle, beyond space and time.)

(Lighting shifts to something darker - full stage feeling of being dim and liminal. Video perhaps becomes distorted, jittery, as if there is interference with ORPHEA's psychic and prophetic powers).

ORPHEA:
And when you are gone there will be no memory
Of you and no regret. For you do not share
The Pierian roses, but unseen in the house of Hades 
You will stray, breathed out, among the ghostly dead. 

(Lights fade out slowly, sound fades after lights)

SCENE 5: IN APARTMENT - WHAT DO YOU LOVE?

(Lights up. Lighting depicts evening at home. EURYDICE at home jittery, flitting from one spot to another.) 

EURYDICE: I don't see why you are so upset. We had a nice dinner with friends, for the first time in a long while.

ORPHEA: Friends?! I saw the way Serpio hugged you goodbye! He's always wanted you!

(EURYDICE exhales with a shaky laugh.)

EURYDICE: You are always so jealous! 

(EURYDICE is pulling on the edges of her skirt, the volume rises and it is tense with micro tuning.)

EURYDICE: I, I, I am only yours, but these tethers are too tight! I feel my heart cloistered in my chest and withering. I am no longer my own.

(ORPHEA disregards this very vulnerable statement in a kind of performance, unable to engage in an authentic way)

ORPHEA: Of course, you are mine! 

(Grabbing at the tether lines and pulling her in. There is an attempt to lighten the mood, with the purpose of avoiding a real discussion of roles, feelings and expectations).

ORPHEA: You are only mine. These moments of jealousy only prove Once again Love, that loosener of limbs, bittersweet and inescapable, crawling thing, seizes me. Wondrous crawling thing!

(Grotesque and amusing and threatening. Motive from you burn me enters, ORPHEA humming. EURYDICE isn't amused and is unsettled. She shivers and yanks back her tethers but then tunes them. Straightening her skirt and trembling, tries to normalize things externally and internally. EURYDICE sings a slow motive as a mantra.)

EURYDICE: Love, love, love

 (EURYDICE is still trembling, and clearly shaken. ORPHEA leaves her alone.) 

ORPHEA: I need a walk! You are in a mood.

EURYDICE:
I am Like the mountain hyacinth, 
the purple flower That shepherds trample to the ground... 
I am Like the mountain hyacinth, 
the purple flower That shepherds trample to the ground... 
those I care for best, do me Most harm... 
those I care for best, do me Most harm... 
(vocalise)
Some say horsemen, 
some say warriors, 
Some say a fleet of ships is the loveliest 
Vision in this dark world, but I say it’s 
What you love. 

What you love, what you love,
What do you love? (asking herself)

What do you love? 
Love, Love, Love,
Love, love, love 
What do you love?
What do you love? 

(Lights fade out)

SCENE 5: IN A FIELD - BEAUTIFUL MOON 

(Lights fade in. Lighting is early evening or dusk, moon rising. Video shows an open field and possibly the wedding in the distance. We hear folio of the field, nature setting. EURYDICE finds an open spot on a field. She sings a solo about her insecurity when compared to "the beautiful moon." She has lost sight of herself, but in this scene, lying in the grass, her skirt lifted, the incessant tuning stops and she is aligned with her woodland roots (as a nymph), listening to the evening whir of nature and her true self, together, she is awakened, finding her own "true fullness" (Oak nymph or mountain pasture nymph - name means true judgement, personification of nature, untameable (bride but also  promiscuous), this tension of EURYDICE holding down her true nature - she longs for nature)

EURYDICE:
The stars around the beautiful moon
The stars around the beautiful moon
Hiding my glittering
Whenever she shines full on earth
Silver

She shines, I hide, 
She shines, I hide my glittering

But you, most beautiful night,
in you I feel welcome
Sinking into the soil
in you I feel whole

The stars and moon are so far
untouchable in their glittering
In this damp earth, 
I feel life welling within me.

I feel life move through me
I am heard in these shadows
The moon nor stars give light to grow (here that the skirt lifts??)
Still in this night from this earth I unfurl

O most tender heart, how I have missed you
O Gaia, how I grow in your presence
To grow freely, unbound, untethered,
To glow with effervescence of the night.

(We hear the night sounds, steps approaching, SERPIO, a friend, enters from the back of ODC (lighting booth) and walks towards EURYDICE, dueting with her.

(EURYDICE is interrupted by SERPIO, who gently duets with her singing. For EURYDICE, this is deeply fulfilling, to duet and not have it be a competition, but be listened to, and balanced with, that she is accompanied, rather than being the accompaniment.)

EURYDICE and SERPIO: 
The stars and moon are so far
untouchable in their glittering
In this damp earth, 
I feel life welling in me.

I feel life move through me
I am not seen but heard in these shadows
The moon nor stars give light to grow
Still from this earth I unfurl

O most tender heart, how I have missed you
O Gaia, how I grow in your presence
To grow freely, unbound, untethered,
To glow with effervescence of the night.

(within this duet, we hear ORPHEA as a descant above, searching for EURYDICE. We see ORPHEA from behind, seeing the two of them together, and we see her rage. In the end of the duet, SERPIO gives EURYDICE a full, deeply felt, human embrace, and whisper, "I will leave you to enjoy a moment alone now that you have come home" (maybe just "welcome home" implying her nymph roots, and her wholeness in this moment, witnessed, as a good friend, SERPIO kisses her cheek and moves away quickly, ORPHEA in rage, thinking she has seen the end of their tryst, grows bigger, expands in space behind, looming (lighting - some kind of expansion of shadow), rage building, shaking, a tense silence, so quiet, she is the snake, about to bite. EURYDICE hears the grass moving and feels the tension and begins to stand. ORPHEA maybe hisses, like a snake. ORPHEA grabs her head and tries to turn her around, unknowing of her own force. There is a way that EURYDICE, bound in the skirt, is stuck and it is both the force and the skirt that breaks her neck. ORPHEA shrieks, ungrounded, out of control cry, and runs to the side and cannot be with EURYDICE in her dying.)

(EURYDICE softly sings and slips to the ground. She pulls her skirt close, grasping for her bonds to this world. Her singing fades.)

EURYDICE:
Love, love, love, 
Love, love, love, 
love, 
O most tender heart, how I have missed you
To grow freely, unbound, untethered,
To glow, to shine

(Lighting - Black out)

INTERMISSION

ACT TWO

SCENE 1A: TUNNEL OF TRANSFORMATION - EURYDICE 

(Lighting is dim and mainly focused on the route through the tunnel - this needs to be bright enough for the motion tracking device to be reliable)

(EURYDICE travels through the tunnel of transformation. As if for the first time, she moves freely. She has never known unencumbered movement. Similarly, she sings freely. The vocal line explores a larger range, with more leaps, paralleling her body's found freedom. There is limited text here. EURYDICE does not realize that she is dead, and she is delighted by her new found freedom. She travels through the tunnel at first jubilant in her freedom, not fully understanding the cost of this freedom (her life). As she moves through the tunnel, she realizes that this is the tunnel to the underworld and not only has she lost her life, but at the hands of her love, ORPHEA. She is overwhelmed by grief tinged with anger. Her expansion as a character in the tunnel includes range, physical movement, and emotional breadth joy, but also grief and anger, she is almost wild. There is a feeling that EURYDICE expands into a more powerful, fuller being, she becomes bigger and more vibrant (there is a color of spirit, but not of life)) 

EURYDICE:
(improvisational text for tunnel journey)
I am heard
I unfurl
I feel
I am
I grow
I shine
unbound 
untethered
damp earth
tender heart

SCENE 1B: UNDERWORLD - SHIVERING WITH SWEAT COLD

(EURYDICE is welcomed to the underworld by Hades, who waits for her with his orb, moving waves of sound. Hades stands on a platform above Eurydice on stage right) 

(Lighting focuses on stage right side (approx 1/3 of the stage). There should be a colored feeling of the underworld, purple/red, a feeling of the lack of sunlight and true light.) 

EURYDICE:
Shivering with sweat, cold
Tremors over the skin
I am the color of dead grass, 
As I see the people in the boats
Coming to the isle
Fonder, they look at you
And at me

EURYDICE AND HADES:
Where do they go?
Where do I?

Shivering with sweat, cold
Tremors over the skin
I am the color of dead grass, 
As I see the people in the boats
Coming to the isle
Fonder, they look at you
And at me

Where do they go? 
Where do I?

EURYDICE:
As I might die in love 
Surely you know

SCENE 2: TRIPTYCH STAGE SETTING - ORPHEA CALLING

(The stage is divided in 3, a triptych. EURYDICE (stage right) is lost in the land of the dead remembering life on earth. HADES is listening and filtering the sound of the underworld center stage. ORPHEA explores stage left, searching to catch glimpses of EURYDICE through the tape machine and her radio.)

(Lighting - both center stage and stage right are dimly lit. Stage left is fully lit possibly with a spot light on the tape machine. As Stage Left is the living world, the light should be bright.)

ORPHEA:
O Aphrodite, how could I not hurt the one I love best, 
the one I wanted to make my own?
Check this longing! Check this longing!
Aphrodite, you ask me, "Orphea, who wrongs you now?"
It is me, my own doing, oh Eurydice, it is me.
Why would you ever want me back?
Check this longing! Check this longing!
Aphrodite, you say:
If she runs now she’ll pursue later,
If she refuses gifts she’ll give them. 
If she loves not, now, she’ll soon 
Love against her will.’ 
But who would love me willingly? 
Check this longing! Check this longing!
Who would love me willingly? 
Eury, Eury! Could you ever love me willingly?)
Check this longing! Check this longing!
Come to me now, Eury! Eury!
free me from aching care,
All my heart longs to have You.
You are mine! You are mine
All my heart longs to have You.
Eurydice, Eurydice, 
I beg you! 
Come now!
Come to me here...

(ORPHEA moves trying to hear EURYDICE through her radio transmitter. EURYDICE begins to sing on the other side - processed live with both the Orb and this distortion from the underworld.)

(Lighting - center and stage right 1/3s should come up in lighting, slightly before EURYDICE's entrance)

EURYDICE:
Nightingale, herald of spring
With a voice of longing
So many birds once
You have forsaken me
Forgotten me
You and my servant Eros

There is a sweet apple reddening high on the branch
High on the highest, the apple pickers forgot, 
But one they couldn’t reach
How ripe will it get
Before it falls.

Neither for me the honey
Nor the honeybees.
Those I care for best, do me most harm.

(ORPHEA's radio fades out slightly after EURYDICE finishes singing)

(Lighting - Side spots fade out and spot widens center stage to HADES where he continues as a solo, struggling to come to terms with his own domination of PERSEPHONE and the limits of love that this has caused.)

SCENE 3: HADES HOME/BEDROOM - I LIE ALONE

HADES:
The moon is down, 
the Pleiades,
Midnight, the hours flow on. 

The moon is down, 
the Pleiades, 
Midnight, the hours flow on. 

I lie, alone. 
I lie, alone. 

A pasture for horses blossomed with the flowers of spring.
And breezes flowed here like honey, 
you came to me here, 
I lie, alone, 
you came to me here, 
I lie alone. 

I lie, alone.
I lie alone. 
I lie alone. 

You, shivering with sweat, 
cold tremors over the skin 
turned the color of dead grass 
an inch from dying.

Love that loos'ner of limbs, 
bitter sweet and inescapable 
crawling thing seized me, 
seized me. 

I lie, alone, 
I lie alone. 
I lie, alone, 
I lie alone. 

Delicately taking nectar in golden cups 
the seeded fruit beside 
I watched you partake. 
Unknowing choice. 
I lie alone,
Yet I am not one who takes joy in wounding 
I lie, alone, 
Yet I am not one who takes joy in wounding 
I lie, alone. 

Nightingale, herald of spring with a voice of longing. 
Nightingale, herald of spring with a voice of longing. 
I lie alone, 
I lie alone, 
but you have forgotten me, 
I lie, alone,
I lie, alone, 
but you have forgotten me. 

I lie, alone, 
you will never forgive me 
I lie, alone, 
You will never forgive me 
I lie, alone,
I lie, alone. 
I lie, alone, 
I lie alone,

SCENE 4A: TRIPTYCH STAGE SETTING - ORPHEA CALLING PART 2

(Weaves back to ORPHEA searching with her radio (clearly a ritual that ORPHEA has become obsessed with, attempting to find EURYDICE by listening for the underworld). 

(Lighting is up on stage left (ORPHEA), as she searches to hear the underworld and sings, calling for EURYDICE. Center stage and stage right spots are dim, but we can see both EURYDICE and Hades moving. Lights come full as the characters enter the trio.)

ORPHEA:
Come to me now, Eury! Eury!
Free me from aching care,
All my heart longs to have you.
All my heart believes you are mine.

Check this longing, check this longing!

Eury! Eury! I beg you! 
Eury! Eury! Come now!
Eury! Eury! Come to me here!

EURYDICE: (interweaving)
Neither for me the honey, nor the honey bees.
Neither for me the honey, nor the honey bees.
Oh, love, love, love.

ORPHEA and HADES: (interweaving)
She doesn't miss me.
She is not mine.

HADES: (interweaving)
O Persephone,
She runs to her spring flowers.
She runs to her sunlit mountains.
She runs to her honey bees.

EURYDICE:
Those I care for best do me most harm.
Those I care for best do me most harm.

HADES:
I have done you great harm.
Oh Persephone, how could I trap you here?
And Eurydice?
How can I allow her to return, under Orphea's watchful eye?

ORPHEA:
Would you? How could you love me willingly?
Eury! Eury!
How could you love me willingly?
Yet you are your own. You have always been...your own.

Check this longing, check this longing.

Oh, how can I bring you back?
Oh, how can I bring you back?
Love, love, love,

EURYDICE:
Nightingale, how I miss you!
Nightingale, herald of spring, how I miss you!
Nightingale, herald of spring, with a voice of longing.
Nightingale, herald of spring, with a voice of longing.
So many birds...

ORPHEA: You are your own.

EURYDICE: So many birds...

ORPHEA: You've always been your own.

EURYDICE: Love, love, love (referring to her love of life and nature in the world of the living). 

(EURYDICE's final line (love refrain) overlaps with the beginning of Most Beautiful - HADES' vocalise intro).

(Lighting - Stage left and right spots fade to quarter and HADES is well lit in the center. Stage right light fades to full at EURYDICE's entrance, center light fades to half so that soloists are lit when they sing alone (stage left stays at 1/4 lit - dim). Following the solo sections, in duet both center and stage right are lit.This lighting is consistent with the previous triptych lighting.) 

(HADES considers the request, and weighs the options, looking at EURYDICE and what might be best for her, thinking of his dear PERSEPHONE and his wish that someone had protected her, the desire for choice, a choice that PERSEPHONE was not given, and he voices why he is willing to allow ORPHEA to come find EURYDICE.) 

SCENE 4B: TRIPTYCH STAGE SETTING - MOST BEAUTIFUL

HADES: (begins with vocalise and hoop duet)
Oh, my Persephone 
how you were forced to stay 
in tricking you 
I lost your love. 
I cannot take back 
my deceitful self 
I was so lonely 
There was nothing I could do 
there was nothing I could say 
so lonely 
there was nothing I could do 
there was nothing I could say 
You stand by me, but you are always alone. 
I am always alone. 

(Lighting comes up on stage right on EURYDICE and center stage moves to 1/2 lit)

EURYDICE:
Most beautiful of all the things that I have left: 
is the light of the sun, next gleaming stars, 
and the face of the moon. 
Then cucumbers in the summer 
and apples and pears. 
Then cucumbers in the summer 
and apples and pears. 

(Lighting fades up on center stage on HADES and stage right fades to 1/2 lit)

HADES:
Time just goes by and forgiveness is not an option.
Oh Eurydice in you I see my Persephone. 
Forced to this underworld missing the living.
And just like her I cannot bear to watch you grieve 
I cannot bear to watch you mourn for the light of the sun 
Watch you long for the moonlight and keep you here.
But how can I send you back? 
How can I commit you to a love that is killing you? 
A love that is killing you, there must be a way...

(Lighting fades up on stage right with EURYDICE's entrance)

EURYDICE (duet):
Most beautiful of all the things that I have left: 
is the light of the sun, next gleaming stars, 
and the face of the moon. 
Then cucumbers in the summer 
and apples and pears. 
Then cucumbers in the summer 
and apples and pears. 

HADES (duet):
Most beautiful, I miss it too. 
The light of the sun, and the gleaming stars 
and the face of the moon. 
I long to stand on the other side. 
Persephone as my bride. 
Free on the living side. 
Free on the living side.  

(Stage left lighting fades to full with Orphea's entrance)

EURYDICE, HADES, and ORPHEA: 

(This section weaves between voices. ORPHEA improvises on the tape machine through this section.)

ALL:
Nightingale, herald of spring with a voice of longing. 
Nightingale, herald of spring with a voice of longing. 

ORPHEA:
how could I not hurt the one I love best, 
the one I wanted to make my own? 

ALL: to be one's own! 

EURYDICE: The stars around the beautiful moon

EURYDICE and HADES: The light of the sun, next gleaming stars, and face of the moon...

HADES:
Unless I relent, 
unless I allow, 
to break the rules, 
transform somehow,

to trust in change,
to love and live,
even here, in shadows,
to shift and forgive
to be willing 
to allow 
to be willing 
to allow
You may enter!

(There is a sonic sound of opening - the tunnel appears and opens to ORPHEA.) 

SCENE 5A: TUNNEL OF TRANSFORMATION - ORPHEA

(Lighting - stage right and stage left fade out, center stage cross fades to lighting the tunnel space. Similar lighting to Eurydice's tunnel lighting)

(ORPHEA travels to the underworld and enters the tunnel. In the tunnel, the text magnifies, building into a cacophony through the live vocal processing. This section is a free improvisation on the themes and text below.)

ORPHEA:
Love shook my heart
Like the wind on the mountain 
troubling the oak trees
You burned me, I watched you, I wanted you to be only mine. 
You burned me, I watched you, I wanted you to be only mine.
Your breath was the sea, the sky overhead, 
and in me, in my veins the stars
You burned me, I watched you, watched you with him, when you were only mine.
You burned me, I watched you, watched you with him, when you were only mine.
We are equal with the gods,
You burned me, I watched you, I grabbed you, you were only mine,
You burned me, I watched you, I grabbed you, you were only mine, 
I who sit across from you, face to face,
your voice close enough to sip, the sweetness
You burned me, I shook you, I hurt you, you were only mine
You burned me, I shook you, I hurt you, you were only mine
close enough to sip your voice, the sweetness
You burned me, I hurt you, I killed you, you were only mine
You burned me, I hurt you, I killed you, you were only mine
the sweetness
only mine, only mine, only mine, only mine
only mine, only mine, only mine, only mine

EURYDICE: Orphea! (call)

(EURYDICE guides ORPHEA out of the tunnel) 

SCENE 5B: UNDERWORLD AND TUNNEL - REUNITING AND RETURN 

(Lighting fades in on stage right (underworld) and possibly dims to half on the tunnel. Same underworld lighting as before.) 

(Begins as a heartfelt reunion, but thwarted, both quickly feel the weight and difficulty of moving forward. EURYDICE has a physical aversion to ORPHEA that she can't hide or think away.) 

EURYDICE: Orphea! Orphea, I am here!

ORPHEA: Eurydice! I am so sorry! (coming almost to a whisper, her most honest statement, with no pretext, no performance). 

(There is a tenderness in being reunited. A feeling of all that they have been through.)

EURYDICE and ORPHEA (duet):
Love shook my heart, 
like the wind on the mountains troubling the oak trees
Your breath was the sea, the sky overhead and in me, 
In my veins the stars. 

EURYDICE:
The stars around the beautiful moon, 
How I miss the stars around the beautiful moon.

ORPHEA and EURYDICE:
We are, we are equal with the Gods,
I who sit across from you
Face to face, close enough to sip your voice, the sweetness
O, Most Tender Heart, how I have missed you! 

(they breathe together, balanced, loving, loved)

ORPHEA and EURYDICE: love, love, love (spell-like)

(ORPHEA weaves with the original melody, love, love, love, love, love, love, love...EURYDICE's physical lack of ease is clear, she can't hide her fear, physical fear. She is pulled by the spell, but also wary and wanting to orient to nature - her true guide and orientation)

EURYDICE: Most beautiful! Most Beautiful of all, is the light of the sun! 

HADES: Orphea, you cannot make her your own, you cannot look back. Eurydice, you may return to your beautiful light. Orphea may lead you back, but there can be no backward glance, no controlling eye. Orphea you cannot linger here, you must go now, and if Eurydice chooses, she may follow.

(Rising musical lines, weaving, with a sense of pulling, ever more resonant in the tunnel, disorienting and bending.)

(We hear their footsteps, these seem to resonate, ORPHEA is quiet at first, as she turns towards the tunnel, but it is as if EURYDICE was her sun, she feels the darkness surrounding her (confirm tunnel processing for sound and video, but dimness when ORPHEA faces away from EURYDICE is an option)

ORPHEA (interweaving with EURYDICE):
I choose you, most beautiful, my light, my sun (listens), 
with each step she chooses me, my light, my sun, (listens), 
chooses me, my love, (listens),
but without you, there is no light, I am alone, abandoned, alone (listens - fear mounting, overpowering the sense of light and love)
cursed to always be alone, 

(ORPHEA begins to sing louder, with less listening, dominating in the way she does, she is losing her connection to EURYDICE)

I want you to be mine! mine! mine! 
Where are your footsteps? 
Why aren't you walking? 
I don't hear you! I don't hear you! I don't hear you!

EURYDICE (interweaving with ORPHEA):
I choose you, most beautiful, my light, my gleaming stars, my face of the moon (listens)
I choose you, my apples and pears, my summer (listens), 
I forgive you, my night, my darkness (listens and in conversation)|
I am not yours my love, I am my own (listens),
but we could be, we could choose to be, to love and to honor unfurling life 

(ORPHEA begins to turn)

BLACKOUT