The ancient material about the (im)mortal love between Orpheus and Eurydice is present in countless adaptations. This is hardly surprising since it’s the elementary motives of humanity that are discussed here: love, art, and death. The popular myth itself is derived from the even older story about Demeter, who lost her daughter Persephone to Hades and the underworld. In her honor, mystic celebrations of several days were held in ancient Greece, through which dances, making music together, singing, screaming, and lamenting became central elements of the ritualistic search for Persephone.

The multidisciplinary Icelandic artist Erna Ómarsdóttir reinterprets the myth of Orpheus in five cycles of eternal growth and decay, intertwining ancient and Indo-European legends as well as contemporary subjects. With a mixed cast of actors from the Freiburg Theater and dancers from the Iceland Dance Company, she examines the metamorphoses and reproductive forces of culture and art, which over time have made Mother Earth a skilled lyre player and her offspring his tragic bride, who follows her husband silently and on soft soles.

In her new borderline-musical, Erna Ómarsdóttir questions the dualisms of life and death, understanding and feeling, artistic creation and silence, man and woman … – Who has the Golden Fleece? Where do the snakes come from? And does Eurydice actually want to go back to the (upper) world?

• Erna Ómarsdóttir – direction and choreography
• Gabríela Friðriksdóttir – stage design and costumes
• Valdimar Jóhansson, Skúli Sverrisson – composition and arrangemens
• Valdimar Jóhansson – video design
• Bjarni Jónsson – text and translation
• Tamina Theiß  – dramaturgy

On stage: Felix Urbina Alejandre, Una Björg Bjarnadóttir, Thieß Brammer, Victor Calero, Janna Horstmann, Henry Meyer, Stefanie Mrachacz, Ho-Ching Charmene Pang, Saga Sigurðardóttir, Michael Witte

ORPHEUS + EURYDICE – The Orphic Cycles is a co-production of Theater Freiburg and Iceland Dance Company with NORDWIND Festival and Kampnagel Hamburg. Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Funded by the Innovation Fund for arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg