Review Roundup: Maya Hawke Stars In EURYDICE Off-Broadway

Maya Hawke, known to television audiences for her role as Robin in Netflix's Stranger Things, makes her Off-Broadway debut in Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice, alongside Brian d'Arcy James and Caleb Eberhardt, Read the reviews!

The production is directed by Les Waters, who previously directed the 2007 premiere of Eurydice at Second Stage Theater. 

Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice offers a lyrical, contemporary retelling of the classic Greek myth, this time from the viewpoint of its heroine. On her wedding day, Eurydice dies unexpectedly and descends into the Underworld. There, she is reunited with her father, a character Ruhl added to the myth, and begins to navigate a dreamlike world where memory fades and language is slippery. As Orpheus attempts to rescue her, Eurydice must choose between returning to the world of the living with her husband or remaining in the underworld with her father. The play explores themes of love, grief, and the impermanence of human connection with poetic elegance and emotional depth.

The creative team includes scenic design by Scott Bradley, costumes by Oana Botez, lighting by Reza Behjat, sound design by Bray Poor, and hair, wig, and makeup by Krystal Balleza and Will Vicari. Props are supervised by Rachel Kenner. 

Laura Collins-Hughes, The New York Times: CRITIC'S PICK - Les Waters’s marvelously burnished revival... stars an instantly likable Maya Hawke as a self-possessed Eurydice, cerebral but with a romantic streak, and a beautifully understated Brian d’Arcy James as her mild father, funny here in a dadly way and immensely moving, too... This Off Broadway revival is similar to that earlier Waters production, yet even more eloquent in execution — the work of a director who by now knows the play’s every ripple and depth.

Amelia Merrill, New York Theatre Guide: Maya Hawke is just as game to star in a surreal Off-Broadway melodrama as she is a hit movie franchise. Hawke is at home in the frustrated, determined, and slightly mysterious title role... The question is less, ‘Why revive this story right now?’ than ‘Why not?’”

Adam Feldman, Time Out New York: Ruhl's riff leans into surrealism, symbolism, dark humor and poetry as the title character is torn between husband and father, romance and grief, the living and the dead. The production includes moving moments and breathtaking visuals... Her Eurydice is a reimagined remembrance of a story we feel compelled to revisit over and over, even once we’ve learned the dangers of looking back.

Jackson McHenry, Vulture: The familiarity of it all is crucial to the thing. Given the myth, or the number of times you might’ve seen it brought to life, you know the final turn is coming, though that never makes it any less painful. And it’s bracing when Ruhl tightens her lens and has the play become suddenly specific — those instructions Eurydice’s father recites, for instance, direct you to her own grandparents’ former home. For all its whimsy, the play centers on something hard and insoluble: that we’ll lose each other, from one generation to the next, and that we’ll always come back to thinking of the dead, and wishing we listened more.

Average Rating: 80.0%