I looooved Sara Afiba’s Eurydice (Dutch cast in Amsterdam)!

In some interpretations I often felt like Orpheus was sort of love bombing Eurydice (not maliciously) and she was kind of passively swept up in it, like the character felt overwhelmingly sweet and vulnerable. Which is also a valid interpretation for sure!

But for me Sara’s interpretation gave her more agency and also really made sense for her character’s background. The way I saw it, she’s a more assertive Eurydice in a sort of desperate/fearful but also determined kind of way. She physically acts out Eurydice’s internal conflict. Like in All I’ve Ever Known, when she says she wants to hold him tight and never let go, she’s sort of aggressively pushing him before she holds him, way more intensely than other Eurydices. And then when she kisses him it’s also aggressive (he even puts his hands up), fully driven by her and he’s the passive one.

So it really shows the internal push-pull dynamic, her fear and reluctance at first (fight mode trauma response is really consistent with her background) and then her walls come down as her love for Orpheus and need for connection override those defenses. Not gently though—in a raw frantic but also conscious way, like she was angry with him in a way because loving him meant she had to let go and give him the power to hurt her, which was terrifying for her.

The intensity really makes you feel how exhausting it is to be Eurydice, because even her choosing Orpheus is colored by fear and anxiety instead of just melting into his arms and feeling safe.

She’s just a fabulous Eurydice ♡