Greek mythology has a long history of retellings. Whether we’re talking Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Greek Myths miniseries, or even Disney’s Hercules, Greek myths still have a proud place in pop culture. But what about the obvious place for Greek myths to be retold: the theater?

To fill a section of that void, we have 2003’s Eurydice, a play by Sarah Ruhl. Ruhl retells the myth of Orpheus, a musician, and his wife Eurydice.

In the original story, after Eurydice dies unexpectedly, Orpheus descends to the Underworld to ask Hades, the Lord of the Underworld, if she can have her life back. Hades (and sometimes his wife Persephone) are so overcome with the power of Orpheus’ music that he allows Orpheus to lead Eurydice out of the Underworld and back to the land of the living, as long as Orpheus does not check behind him to make sure she is following. Orpheus fails the test by looking behind him and Eurydice vanishes back into the Underworld.

Ruhl’s version is told from Eurydice’s perspective and focuses on her relationship with her deceased father—it also delves into language, learning, and memory. Additionally, it is set in the modern world, though it has a surrealist tinge. In the script, however, Ruhl stipulated that the designers have free reign with creating the sets; therefore, every production is different from its fellows.

In the play, Eurydice is lured away from a party after her wedding by someone known as the Nasty Interesting Man, also called the Lord of the Underworld. He says he has a letter for her from her father, who is dead. She follows him to his apartment to retrieve the letter but trips and falls to her death on the stairs. What follows is a stunning vision of familial teaching and love as well as lessons in the pursuit of memory.

Notably, when someone dies and goes to the Underworld, they are dipped in the river Lethe, which erases all their memories. Eurydice’s father has managed to regain his memories, and when Eurydice arrives—unknowing and failing to remember even her husband’s name—he teaches her to regain herself. It’s a series of heartwarming scenes where they discuss etymology, language, and Shakespeare’s King Lear.

The Underworld also has three Stones who serve as a Greek chorus; though they warn the other characters about their actions, they cannot influence the plot. They cannot act on the memories of what they have seen. In a similar way, Eurydice is guided by the wills of others for the majority of the play, having little agency of her own. She is frustrated when first attempting to remember Orpheus’ name, but when her father starts to help her, she catches on quickly, especially as she has someone already leading the way.

When Eurydice’s father learns that she plans to return to life with Orpheus, he dips himself in the Lethe, erasing all his memories and knowledge. When Eurydice returns, she expects to find her father the same as she left him. She does not, and in despair, she dips herself in the Lethe as well. When Orpheus finally dies, he too has been dipped in the Lethe, and without Eurydice or her father to guide him in regaining his memories, he cannot know or remember anything.

Thus, this play is, at its essence, a tragedy, as all three main characters, despite warnings, ultimately lose all sense of themselves.

Because it is a common theme throughout the story, the concept of remembering comes up in the first scene of the play, as Orpheus asks Eurydice to remember a piece of music for him. Despite claiming a lack of musical talent, she attempts to learn and remembers incorrectly. Throughout the play, the characters’ lack of memories makes it difficult for them to retain learning or relationships with others. For instance, Eurydice’s father writes her letters from beyond the grave, even though she cannot receive them. After she dies, Eurydice writes letters to Orpheus. After Orpheus dies, he sees the last letter Eurydice wrote him but cannot read it. Thus, the letters serve as a way for the characters to reach out to their departed lives and the people they have left behind.

Ultimately, the thing that brings these characters together isn’t the letters; it’s their individual deaths. Even in death, they have nothing that is marked as their own, as every soul is stripped of memory. Therefore, when Eurydice’s father attempts to create a room for his daughter using pieces of string, the chorus of Stones fruitlessly attempt to dissuade him. However, he succeeds in creating something personal and teaches Eurydice about Shakespeare in the space they have managed to carve out just for themselves.

Though Eurydice features a much more surrealist, Alice in Wonderland-like Underworld than the gloomy place typically seen in Greek mythology, it succeeds in telling the original story of Orpheus and Eurydice, albeit in a fresh way. The themes of memory, learning, and language all serve to enhance the characters’ struggles before and during the events of the play. Eurydice’s father’s determination to reach his daughter is matched by Orpheus’ decision to do the same. Unfortunately, Eurydice cannot keep both men in her life, and the story ends as the myth did: in death for all. However, the learning and regaining sense of self that Eurydice undergoes ensures that her story lives on, even though she does not.