Shadow. Eurydice says

(Schatten (Eurydike sagt))

Cast

variable casting, min. 1F

Eurydice tells her story: How she, dying after being bitten by the snake, enters the realm of the dead. Eurydice remembers: How she, when still alive and being an author herself, lived in the shadow of Orpheus, the pop star. Eurydice realizes: How she feels unexpectedly well, being a shadow without being a woman, changed from object of desire to non-subject, being able to relish in the subconscious and freed from all outside control. She doesn't miss her former body, only her beautiful clothes. But then there is growing unrest in the world above her, the newly achieved feeling of peace is being challenged: Orpheus descends to Eurydice, with great public sympathy, to bring her back to life - his life -, and Eurydice is shocked...

For thousands of years the mythos of Orpheus and Eurydice had been viewed from the perspective of Orpheus. In Schatten (Shadows) Elfriede Jelinek allows Eurydice to speak for the first time, and not by accident at the moment of falling silent.

World premiere
17.01.2013 Burgtheater (Akademietheater) Wien (Director: Matthias Hartmann)

Translations
Czech: Stiny (Eurydike ríká) (Translators: Viktorie Knotková / Barbora Schnelle)
Czech premiere 29.12.2013 Na Zabradli, Prag (, Director: Lucie Ferenzová)
Danish: SKYGGE (Eurydike siger) (Translator: Karen Maria Bille)
Danish premiere 18.03.2017 Sydhavn Teater Kopenhagen (Director: Anja Behrens)
English: Shadow. Eurydice Says (Translator: Gitta Honegger)
French: Ombre (Eurydice parle) (Translator: Sophie Andrée Herr)
French language premiere 11.04.2019 THEATRE POINT D'ORGUE atThéâtre Prospéro, Montréal (Director: Louis-Karl Tremblay)
Hungarian: Árnyék (Eurüdíké mondja) (Translator: Zoltán Halasi)
Latvian (Translator: Inga Rozentale)
Latvian premiere 29.05.2020 Daile Theatre, Riga (Director: Viesturs Meikšāns)
Polish: CIENIE. Eurydyka mówi: (Translator: Karolina Bikont)
Polish premiere 26.03.2014 Teatr Polski, Bydgoszcz /Teatr Imka, Warschau (Director: Maja Kleczewska)

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