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‘Hades Fading’: a lesson of life from the dead
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In the underworld: Actress Heliana Sinaga plays Eurydice while presenting the Hades Fading script at NuArt Scuplture Park, West Bandung regency. (JP/Arya Dipa)
T
he oak nymph Eurydice’s destiny is to die after being bitten by a snake in the wake of her marriage to Orpheus, but it was just there that she invited humankind to rethink the meaning of life.
Beginning with her memories that rose gradually at the library of Hades, the god of the underworld in Greek mythology, Eurydice was seeking to identify her father and mother. Everything was vague, just like the audience watching the theater play Hades Fading at the NuArt Sculpture Park in Bandung, West Java, from August 28 to 30.
Heliana Sinaga portrayed Eurydice for around 90 minutes. There were four white screens instead of one, put up separately, but they looked like superimposed layers from the front. Each character had its own place.
Godi Suwarna played Hades with his wife Persephone, played by Rinrin Chandraresmi, occupying the hindmost and furthest area of the stage as a couple reigning over the underworld.
Wawan Sofwan, portraying Orpheus, was the only actor moving freely beyond the stage to approach the audience. He might be the only man in the script written by Melbourne-based director Sandra Fiona Long.
Orpheus’ successful trip from the upperworld to the underworld while singing all the way is in line with the plot of the myth, which is also the case when he managed to persuade Hades and Persephone to grant his request for the return of Eurydice to the upperworld, certainly on the same condition.
