Conservatory Theatre’s ‘Eurydice’ compelling in every way

Stefanie Resnick as Eurydice plays beach ball with her love, Ryan Dougherty as Orpheus, in the Nevada Conservatory Theatre production of "Eurydice," in performance this weekend at UNLV. (Courtesy)

Ryan Dougherty as Orpheus plays beach ball with his love, Stefanie Resnick as Eurydice, in the Nevada Conservatory Theatre production of "Eurydice," in performance this weekend at UNLV. (Courtesy)

How do we remember to forget?

That question is at the center of Sarah Ruhl’s enchanting memory play, “Eurydice,” a re-imagining of the classic myth that explores death, love and forgetting, now in production by the Nevada Conservatory Theatre at UNLV. Ruhl wrote the play to honor her father who died of cancer when she was 20 and “to have a few more conversations with him.”

Director Laura Gordon uses a delicate touch with Ruhl’s poetic imagery to create a dreamwork open to many levels of interpretation. The poetry of the language is enhanced by the poetry of movement created by movement coach Shelley Lynn, as graceful as the figures on a Greek vase.

This retelling of the myth of Orpheus from Eurydice’s point of view opens with Eurydice and Orpheus playing beach ball and playfully arguing over the importance of words versus music. Orpheus ties a string around her finger so that she will remember she loves him.

But on her wedding day, Eurydice is enticed away by the charmingly sinuous Interesting Man who claims to have a letter from her dead father. In his penthouse she “trips” and falls into the Underworld where she promptly forgets Orpheus.

Eurydice is greeted in the Underworld by the Three Stones, a humorous though somewhat unsettling Greek chorus of Fates. Her father, who has managed to escape the forgetfulness that comes from crossing the river Styx, recognizes Eurydice, but she does not remember him, until he begins to tell her their shared stories. Meanwhile, the Lord of the Underworld plans to marry Eurydice.

Orpheus, dressed in a leather jacket, charms his way into the Underworld with his guitar and the Lord of the Underworld agrees to release Eurydice if Orpheus does not look back at her as she follows him to the upper world. Ruhl subtly alters the ending in a way that enhances the myth’s meaning.

Stefanie Resnick plays Eurydice with an interesting mix of girlishness and womanhood. In her innocent love for Orpheus she hints at an intriguing ambivalence. She makes Eurydice’s surprising choice understandable and tragic. Resnick looks ravishing in costume designer Jennifer Van Buskirk’s stunning ’50s haute couture that create a feeling of contemporary timelessness.

Ryan Dougherty makes a winsome Orpheus, somewhat of a cross between a college frat boy and James Dean. Because he is separated from Eurydice for most of the play he must convey much of his part of their love story one-sidedly, but he brings the passion of Romeo to the role. His final wordless moment is one of the most emotionally stirring in the play.

Brian Mani in the part of Father to Eurydice is the archetypal Every Father. Knowing that the play is intended to honor and remember Ruhl’s dead father makes Mani’s already moving performance even more poignant. He moves with loving eloquence when he builds an outline house of rope for Eurydice and likewise when he takes it down.

Stephon Pettway is a standout in this excellent cast, showing shades of charming deviltry, childish temper and streetwise confidence in the comic but nonetheless threatening role of Interesting Man/Lord of the Underworld.

Galina Vasileva (Big Stone), Kayla Gaar (Little Stone) and Kelly Hawes (Loud Stone) make a seamless Greek chorus even while each of these Fates stands out comically on her own. Van Buskirk dresses them like scary dolls from a horror movie.

Ian Mangum’s lovely scenic design is simple and extends the feeling of dreamlike contemporaneity created by Jennifer Van Buskirk’s beautiful costumes. His Underworld subway station has an art deco design. In the stage apron he has a rickety pier extending over the blue waters of the Styx — don’t fall! Josh Lentner’s lighting design creates dreamlike colors. His lighting effects simulate the sensation of dropping during Eurydice’s fall into the Underworld.

Eurydice’s Underworld may have the dreamlike absurdity of Alice’s Wonderland but her journey’s end has the somber reminder of the memento mori of Ash Wednesday.