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&#8220;You thought singing would get you through the gates of hell?&#8221; one character asks.&#8220;See here!&#8221; another responds. &#8220;I want my wife!&#8221;If you&#8217;re familiar with Greek mythology, those two lines &#8212; uttered during rehearsal at King&#8217;s College by student actors Sean Lickers, of Wilkes-Barre, and John Barrera, of Ventura, Calif., &#8212; are enough to tell you the theatre department is presenting the story of Eurydice.Even if you don&#8217;t know the legendary beauty by name, you might have heard of her husband. The ancient myth, after all, focuses on Orpheus who, relying on his musical talent to charm everyone he meets, descends into the Underworld to find his wife after her death, intent upon bringing her back to the land of the living.But Sarah Ruhl&#8217;s &#8220;Eurydice&#8221; shines a spotlight on the heroine of the tale, telling us about her curious mind, her love of books, and her affection for her father, who was already in the Underworld and unable to walk her down the aisle when she married Orpheus.&#8220;It makes me treasure my relationship with my father all the more,&#8221; cast member Jessica Sudano, of Milford, said of the play.&#8220;I think fathers are going to be affected, especially fathers who have a daughter,&#8221; Sudano added, thinking about the emotions the play might stir among audience members.Actually, you probably don&#8217;t have to be a father to sympathize with the characters. You just have to be human.&#8220;We were all in tears the other night at rehearsal,&#8221; director Sheileen Godwin said.Some of the script&#8217;s poignancy &#8212; penned by a playwright who lost her own father and dedicated this work to him &#8212; rests on the premise that people who die and enter the Underworld are dipped into a river that makes them forget their past lives, and loves, and even how to communicate.But Eurydice&#8217;s father has managed to hold onto his memories, and he&#8217;s helping Eurydice retrieve hers &#8212; on a playground-like set that Godwin describes as &#8220;more Eurydice&#8217;s Wonderland than Hades.&#8221;Then Orpheus arrives to rescue her.Though her father notices &#8220;his shoulders aren&#8217;t very broad; can he take care of you?&#8221; he urges Eurydice to accompany Orpheus back to the land of the living. &#8220;You should go to your husband,&#8221; he said. &#8220;You should have grandchildren.&#8221;&#8220;He&#8217;s definitely, 100 percent sincere about that,&#8221; said Chip Lemheney, of West Chester, who plays the father. &#8220;The dad has to let go, as much as he wants to be with his daughter. What his daughter needs is to experience all those things.&#8221;But, what does Eurydice think? Might she want to stay in the Underworld with her father, to whom she is so similar, instead of returning to that other world with a husband who has been perhaps overly absorbed in his music?&#8220;I am an adult and I can do this (go with Orpheus),&#8221; Annarose McLaughlin, of Lakeville said, speaking in character as Eurydice. But there&#8217;s also another tug; &#8220;I want to stay with my father.&#8221;Attend the show and you&#8217;ll find out what happens to Eurydice, her father and Orpheus &#8212; and you&#8217;ll likely ponder love and loss, life and death, and that aching wish to remain connected to a parent who has passed on.&#8220;I love the play. When I first read it it really grabbed me,&#8221; said Godwin, the director, whose connections to her own father, the late J. Gerald Godwin, have included following him into the college theatre department where he worked for nearly 40 years.After she decided to stage &#8220;Eurydice,&#8221; Godwin said, she found a card her father had sent her almost three decades ago, on a significant birthday, asking her to &#8220;remember me 30 years from now&#8221; and to rest assured he would be remembering her.&#8220;I definitely believe in signs,&#8221; she said, noting the perhaps-not-so-coincidental timing of her finding of the note.&#8220;He knew he wouldn&#8217;t be here in 30 years,&#8221; she said. But she suspects he would approve of the dad-and-daughter bond at the heart of the play.<ins>IF YOU GO</ins><ins>What: &#8216;Eurydice&#8217;</ins><ins>Who: King&#8217;s College Theatre Department</ins><ins>When: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 20 through Nov. 23 and 2 p.m. Nov. 23</ins><ins>Where: George P. Maffei II Theatre, Administration Building, 133 N. River St., Wilkes-Barre</ins><ins>Tickets: $12 for general admission, $7 for senior citizens, and $5 for King&#8217;s alumni and non-King&#8217;s students</ins><ins>Box office: 570-208-5825 or boxoffice@kings.edu.</ins><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Annarose McLaughlin, of Lakeville, has the title role in the King&#8217;s College production of &#8216;Eurydice.&#8217; Water is a recurring theme in the play, and McLaughlin posed underwater in the college swimming pool to create an otherworldly effect. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_eurydice.jpeg</photo0><caption0>Annarose McLaughlin, of Lakeville, has the title role in the King&#8217;s College production of &#8216;Eurydice.&#8217; Water is a recurring theme in the play, and McLaughlin posed underwater in the college swimming pool to create an otherworldly effect. </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Sarah Ruhl&#8217;s play opens Nov. 20 to Nov. 23 at King&#8217;s College</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Mary Therese Biebelmbiebel@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta>IF YOU GOWhat: &#8216;Eurydice&#8217;Who: King&#8217;s College Theatre DepartmentWhen: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 20 through Nov. 23 and 2 p.m. Nov. 23Where: George P. Maffei II Theatre,	Administration Building, 133 N. River St., Wilkes-BarreTickets: $12 for general admission, $7 for senior citizens, and $5 for King&#8217;s alumni and non-King&#8217;s studentsBox office: 570-208-5825 or boxoffice@kings.edu.</factboxMeta></div>

‘Eurydice’ reimagines mythfrom heroine’s viewpoint