Barlow Theatre performed Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell for their year’s first production. Hadestown is a musical set in New Orleans during the Great Depression, inspired by Greek mythology.
It stars Orpheus and Eurydice and tells the story of their love. It begins with Eurydice, who is hungry and alone, falling in love with Orpheus. He shares with her his plans to bring back springtime with a song. As the weather grows harsher and Orpheus becomes distracted by his song, she sells her soul to work in an industrialized version of the Hades’ underworld in return for protection. Upon realizing this, Orpheus goes down to the underground to save her.
There, he finds the unhappily married couple: Hades and Persephone. Orpheus realizes upon meeting them that it was their love that made the world go round, that Persephone’s transition to and from the underworld brought along with it spring and autumn. Now that the love is gone, though, long winters and summers have taken their place. Orpheus sings to remind them of what their relationship used to be, and they are moved to the point of rekindling their love.
In return for this favor, Hades offers Orpheus one chance to bring Eurydice back to the world above. If he failed, though, Eurydice would remain in the underworld, and Orpheus would have to return to the overworld alone.
The Barlow Theatre Department put on this remarkable show with a musical score of rock, jazz, folk, and blues. Actors Josie Williams and Spencer Neighorn, as Eurydice and Orpheus respectively, were satisfied and proud with how the show turned out. They played their roles incredibly well, showcasing the range of emotions their characters experience through their acting and songs. Both juniors, we are excited to see future performances from them.
An especially notable part of the musical was the live band on stage. Piano, drums, guitar, cello, ‘squeezebox’, and many more really pulled the performance together. Violet Ross played the cello during the performance. When asked about the experience, she said, “It’s super awesome being able to basically watch the show while playing the music, and the challenge of playing in a small ensemble for two hours without a conductor is really rewarding. Everyone is so talented and dedicated, and overall, it’s been a very unique first-pitch orchestra experience.”
Every musician on stage had their costumes, and some even had parts in scenes of the play. Another reason this play is so special is that the original play is currently touring and performing in Eugene, OR, from Nov 15 – Nov 17, 2024, at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts.
Barlow is one of the very first high schools to put on Hadestown, and the actors set the bar high with their amazing performance, set design, and costumes. Many of the actors have been a part of the Barlow Theater productions for many years, but this year, we have some actors participating for their first time.
Janiyah Jointer, a freshman this year, participated in Hadestown in one of the lead roles, Hermes. She did an amazing job of hitting high notes in her song and had an incredible stage presence. Barlow looks forward to seeing her participate in future performances and improve further.
Noah Feldmann-Parks is a junior, and although he hasn’t participated in any plays at Barlow, he has been acting for eight years at The Eastside Theatre Company. He has participated in their production of The Little Mermaid as Eric. Noah says the most challenging part of his role was “the acting, because Hades doesn’t do a lot of dancing, so role relies heavily on acting.” His work paid off though, as Feldmann-Parks did an outstanding job of capturing the complexity of Hades’ character with his acting and incredibly low voice.
Hadestown was the last performance for senior Ania Vilius, who has acted in many shows since she was four. She’s participated in performances with Barlow Theatre before, with some of her most memorable roles being Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Annie, and Frog from A Year with Frog and Toad. She’s a fantastic actor, and showed this well when performing as Persephone in Hadestown. She played her role perfectly and showed Persephone’s carefree and fun character exceptionally well in the performance.
The leading cast was exceptional, as, of course, were other roles such as The Fates, the workers, and the chorus. Behind the scenes, the crew also did a fantastic job running the whole thing. A huge thank you to everyone who invested their time, talent, and effort into making Hadestown come to life!
In April and May, Barlow Theatre will perform Our Town by Thornton Wilder. Tickets for this play are currently sold online, so get yours before they sell out!
