FROM its opening moments, The Orpheus Project creates the authentic mood of its sources of a world of gods of nature and of humans at the mercy of both. Without trying to conform to its ritual disciplines it also reaches back to ancient Greek theatre for its mood and rhythm. There is, by the ending, a sense of having revisited stage beginnings, still powerfully dramatic.

Seven actors recreate the story of Orpheus, bereft of his bride Eurydike (sic) on their wedding day. She is bitten by a snake at the shrine of Apollo and Orpheus resolves, in blasphemous defiance of the gods, to follow her to Hades and rescue her. Using his magical music, he almost succeeds, but loses her at the last moment. Defiant still of the gods, a terrible fate awaits him at the hands of his mother Kalliope (sic) and the Maenads.

Most of this is narrative driven, with some direct dialogue stitched into it. Kennith McLeish's script is lyrical and imageladen, having the tone and balance of the better translations of Greek drama. It carries the story and helps the actors to shape characters, so that Orpheus (Mark D'Aughton), Kalliope (Helena Walsh), Aristaois (Jarlath Rice) and the others - Karl Quinn, James Flynn, Ciara O'Callaghan and Liz Schwarz - can add individual depth to their words. They are uniformly excellent.

The production, directed by Nick Philippou, has been a long time in the shaping. It is a collaboration between the Actors Touring Company from England and Dublin's exploratory Artslab, and the performers have been steeping themselves, in workshops and other ways, in their project for some 18 months. The music by Kostos Vomvolos is most apt, a background of stringed and other sounds, joined by voices in ululation and wailing. Mood is the message, and it is powerful.

After an Irish tour, the 90 minute show will go on to Greece, returning to London and other venues in the UK. It is worth catching.