HADESTOWN

Citadel Theatre: Why did you choose the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice over other popular

Greek myths?

Anaïs Mitchell: It’s interesting, I’m not studied in mythology – I didn’t study it in school or an-

ything. It’s not like I know a lot about it. I remember reading the Orpheus myth when I was a

little kid, in an illustrated book of mythology and just being really taken by the story. Then, I

became a song writer myself, and obviously Orpheus is the hero of song writers. In Hadestown,

he’s a character who believes that if he could just write something good enough, he could

change the world, he could change the way things are. I think I’ve had that feeling and many

of us have. To tell that story in a new way felt exciting.

Photograph by Joan Marcus. ©2016. Nabiyah Be and Damon

Daunno from the New York Theatre Workshop production of

the musical Hadestown.

Anaïs Mitchell is the folk singer-songwriter genius

behind Hadestown, 2016’s smash Off-Broadway

musical. What started as a DIY theatre project

and concept album about the mythical love of

Orpheus and Eurydice has evolved over the past

decade into a stunning show destined for

Broadway. As part of its development, a

revamped production of Hadestown will take

place at the Citadel Theatre this fall, featuring

some Canadian cast members. We sat down with

Mitchell to find out more.

Anaïs Mitchell, the creative force behind Hadestown.

Photograph by Jay Sansone.

CT: How would you describe

Hadestown, and the story of

Orpheus and Eurydice, to

someone who isn’t familiar

with the myth?

AM: The original myth is that

Orpheus, the great musician, is

in love with Eurydice, who is a

wood nymph. On the day of

their wedding, she is bitten by

a snake, and she dies and goes

to the Underworld. Orpheus is

so distraught, he does what no

mortal has done – he goes down

to the Underworld to try to get

her back from Hades. He sings

his sad songs and he moves the heart of Persephone, the wife of Hades. Persephone appeals to

Hades on Orpheus’ behalf and Hades says he can have Eurydice back if he can walk out of the

Underworld without turning around to make sure she’s behind him. And at the very last

minute, he loses faith and he turns around to make sure she is there, and then he loses her

forever. Spoiler alert – it’s a tragic ending.

Hadestown is a retelling of that story. All the characters have the same names. But in this

version of the story, it takes place in a kind of dream-like Depression Era-esque landscape,

where the above ground world is sort of post-Apocalyptic, and the below ground world is this

sort-of nation state, a place of relative security. Hades, who is the boss or the king of that

land, is building a wall all around his nation state to keep out the unpredictable forces of

nature and poverty. Eurydice, in this version of the story, actually chooses to go to Hadestown

because there is security there, there’s safety. Her life with her lover above ground is very

unpredictable. It’s a political dreamscape version of the original Greek myth.

CT: In what ways does you relate to the characters, particularly Orpheus and Eurydice?

AM: I’ve been working on it for a long time – 10 years – and when I was young, I think I really

identified with Orpheus as an artist and someone who wanted to change the world. But at

different times in my life, I think I felt more of a kinship with some of the other characters –

Eurydice, who makes practical choices in her life and has become jaded about the idea that

the world is going to provide for her. And then, the character of Hermes has developed a lot

since I started working with Rachel Chavkin on the Off-Broadway version of the show that we

did last year. He’s become a very present narrator to help guide the audience through this

ritual of this piece, which is mainly just music and singing and songs. There isn’t a book scene

between characters that then becomes a number – it’s pretty much sung through. So Hermes

became very important as a character – as a story teller, really – and I think he’s who I maybe

most identify with now after working on the piece for so long, the telling of the tale.

Photograph by Joan Marcus. ©2016. Shaina Taub, Lulu Fall, Damon Daunno,

Nabiyah Be, Amber Gray, Chris Sullivan, and Jessie Shelton from the New

York Theatre Workshop production of the musical Hadestown.

CT: When did you start collaborating with Rachel Chavkin on Hadestown?

AM: I had moved to New York and was seeing a bunch of shows and I saw a show that Rachel

was directing – and is now directing on Broadway – called Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet

of 1812 by Dave Malloy. I just fell in love with that piece and her direction of it. I sort of

sensed in her a collaborator that could take the thing further without breaking what was

working about it as more of a Fringe piece.

CT: What was it about that production of Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 that

made you realize Rachel was the right person to help you develop Hadestown into a

musical?

AM: Rachel is so smart and so cool, and she gets the relationship between a concert and a

theatre show. She gets the aliveness of the experience of going to see a music show where it

might be different from night to night, and everyone is in the room together and that’s what

matters. Like I was saying, it is mostly music so there is a way in which that concert logic has

to still apply but also it has to be a real story, with more generous, active story-telling than

what you would get at a music show. She’s so good at drawing out the moment to moment

visually-delightful things that can happen with music and lining up the lighting and sound cues

and the staging. She just has a real sense of how to make a show work as a story. She’s a

badass. She’s very involved in terms of the dramaturging of the piece. I came to this project

not really having any experience in the theatre or with playwriting, so Rachel, as well as the

dramaturg, Ken Cerniglia, have been feeding back for years now about what the next steps

might be, in terms of what’s missing from the story.

CT: Ani Difranco, Greg Brown, and Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) all sing on the studio record of

Hadestown. What’s your connection to these artists and how did you round them all up to

do the recording?

AM: It was like a scavenger hunt, finding each of the characters. I was hunting for an Orpheus

and I had asked some people, who had said no. Then I got offered an opening spot on a Bon

Iver tour of Europe - and this was really early on, when that album, For Emma, Forever Ago

had just come out and they had just totally exploded and people were crazy about that music.

I saw him sing that first night and my brain just exploded. It had to be him. I didn’t want to

weird him out by asking him before I even knew him but he was so cosmically the right person

for that. I’m lucky that I met him when I did and he agreed to do it, because he’s a busy dude.

I’m not sure that window would have opened a few years later.

Ani Difranco is probably the most influential singer/songwriter of my youth. I might not have

picked up the guitar if it were not for her and her songs. I was on her record label for several

years, and did a few records with them. Ani was the one who called Greg Brown, who was

always my first pick for Hades. He’s just got that incredibly subterranean, warm voice. Ben

Knox Miller from The Low Anthem - those guys are friends of mine. He sang the role of

Hermes. The Haden Triplets sang the role of the Fates. I feel so lucky – that record was very

charmed. I don’t know if I had asked a year earlier or a year later if it would have worked out.

It’s a beautiful collection of humans to have on one audio document.

Hadestown runs November 11 to December 3, 2017, at Citadel Theatre. For more

information or to purchase tickets, call 780.425.1820 or visit www.citadeltheatre.com.

CT: It seems like, in a lot of ways, Hadestown predicted the current political climate in the

United States - the song Why We Build the Wall, for example. Was it always your intention

to have political undertones in the production?

AM: It always was political but that song, Why We Build the Wall, is a really old song – it’s

from the earliest version of the piece. I never expected it to feel so relevant, to have that

language actually coming out of the mouth of the leader of [my] country. For me, that song

was always a really an archetypal song. There have been walls for as long as there have been

humans. Where there is rich and poor, there is a wall between them. I didn’t write it with any

particular wall in mind. People have said things, ‘oh, it’s about the U.S. and Mexico or Israel

and Palestine or the Berlin Wall.’ It really was more of a touchstone image. Clearly, it’s a

powerful image that people respond to. That’s maybe why [the U.S.] president had the

shocking amount of support that he did – he tapped into something that people wanted to

hear.

CT: Daryl Cloran, artistic director of the Citadel Theatre, invited Hadestown to Edmonton

for a pre-Broadway run. Were you part of the team making that decision?

AM: It mainly was the lead producers that were weighing where we should go next. But I know

that they got a really strong, warm feeling from Daryl and Penny [Ritco, executive director]

and this theatre, and a real sense of purpose. It also feels really great for us to be able to take

this show somewhere far from New York and work on it in a way that feels sort of protected

from that very critical world of theatre and be able to take some changes and explore up here.

That feels like a new period for us.

Photograph by Joan Marcus. ©2016. Shaina Taub, Lulu Fall, Jessie Shelton, Nabiyah Be, and

Chris Sullivan from the New York Theatre Workshop production of the musical Hadestown.