giving the devil his due

"The devil went down to Georgia,

he was looking for a soul to steal.

He was in a bind,

he was way behind,

and he was looking to make a deal."

 

That's a 1979 song from the Charlie Daniels Band, but it would have fit quite nicely with the modern 2003 play that was based on the original Greek myth, which goes back to before there ever was an Anno Domini.

Although the play by Sara Ruhl is titled "Eurydice" and is supposed to be from that female character's point of view, I disagree.

The Lord of the Underworld was clearly the primary person of interest and center of the world in the Black Box offering in Jenkins Hall tonight.

Sure, it may have seemed that way, what with Ethan Goble being that character and being present in all three sections of the play - but that was how the playwright wrote him.

She was the one who made him the creepy guy who claimed to have a letter from Eurydice's dead father, luring the bride away from the wedding.

She was the one who made him the creepy oversized kid on a tricycle in the Underworld, telling everyone that dead people don't have rooms, dead people don't talk, dead people don't know how to read or write.

(That reminded me very much of how the zombies were in "Warm Bodies".)

And the playwright was the one who made him a creepy oversized character who wanted to "lie together like dead bodies do" with Eurydice as his wife.

Super deluxe creepy!

I don't know if Ruhl had intended for the person playing that dark Lord to also wear other hats, but Ethan Goble did; he was the technical director, the sound designer, and part of a quartet of set designers.

What an amazing job he did!

Kudos!

I'm glad the physicist had spotted this and alerted me.

I've become quite lax about checking on plays at GaSoU, I admit.

As near as I can tell, the troupe once called the Masquers is now nameless.

Still, this was a top-notch performance by all.

I'm glad I had been so enraptured by "Orfeo Negro" that I still remembered the story.

PFS had given us that movie link early on in the pandemic., gifting us a series of foreign films via youTube.

The 1959 musical was directed by a Frenchman, set in Brazil during the season of Carnaval, and starred a Brazilian athlete as Orpheus.

Fabulous, just fabulous!

And I had gotten a kick out of worms being used to deliver mail from the Underworld.

Clever!

So when that line was uttered tonight, the whole plot came rushing back!

Strange how that works.

(smile!)

The bfe had seemed a bit aggravated with me during dinner.

Quite possibly it was because I'd asked him to come and fetch me, meaning a round-trip through 5 PM traffic from campus to midtown and back to southside for the play.

I totally get it, but the weather had dipped to its lower register.

I'd wanted to dress up, but I couldn't see having on thick socks and clunky shoes with an actual dress, right?

But he was much calmer by the time he'd finished his steak at Outback, so all was right with the world.

Hooray!