ONCE, in the distant land of Thrace, there lived a poet and singer called Orpheus, who charmed all living creatures with the sweetness of his music... "The haunting myth Orpheus has been adapted and recreated in Western painting, music and literature for more than 2,000 years, from the Orphic texts of the ancient world, to the medieval Sir Orfro, Gluck's Orfeo Ed Eurydice, Rilke's sonnets and Cocteau's Orphee, and it exerts an abiding fascination.
A mortal musician with quasi-divine gifts, Orpheus descends to the Underworld to rescue his beloved wife, Eurydike but, by turning to look back at her as they reach the earth, fails to save her from death. Versions of his life and violent death at the hands of female followers of Dionysos (Maenads) became the basis of a religious movement, called Orphism, which emphasised self-denial, physical purity and the divinity of the soul.
The resonances of the Orpheus myth could probably be pondered on forever, so the year devoted by Actors' Theatre Company (Britain) and the recently formed, Dublin-based, Artslab theatre ensemble to the development of a new stage version is not an unreasonable indulgence.
A series of workshops, with intensive exploration and improvisation, has taken place during the year. The result, called The Orpheus Project, is a collaboration between the two theatre groups, the Greek composer, Kostos Vomvolos, and designer, Apostolos Vettas, the Irish musicians Robbie Harris, Louis Lovett and members of Kiln, and the Kerry-based artist, Kate Buckley, who is making an installation based on the work-in-progress.
"This contribution from different kinds of artists from three different cultural backgrounds opens up the Orpheus myth to a range of multi-cultural perspectives, keeping it alive and immediate," says Chrissie Poulter, co-founder of Artslab, who, with Nick Phillipou from Actors Theatre Company, has directed The Orpheus Project.
The script, which has evolved through the contributions of the performers in the workshop process, is written by Kenneth McLeish, the distinguished English playwright, translator and adaptor of most of the Greek tragedies, including the Royal Shakespeare Company's acclaimed version of Electra (1990), starring Fiona Shaw.
Drawing on a wide range of Greek sources, McLeish's Orpheus is an original play, which uses some of the form and conventions of Euripidean drama, including a chorus, messenger and deus ex machina, but also includes completely untraditional elements, to generate "surprise" and "turmoil".