Summary

Surrounded by light and music, Orpheus arrives at the gate of the underworld. His mouth is open, as though he is singing, though the audience does not hear the sound of his voice. Hearing him, the stones weep. As he sings, Sarah Ruhl says that either a scenic designer should make raspberries, peaches, and plums drop from the air into the river previously mentioned (which is never shown onstage) or an audience should imagine them doing so. A child enters. The child is actually a man, the same actor who plays The Nasty Interesting Man/The Lord of the Underworld. The child asks Orpheus to identify himself. Once Orpheus does so, the child identifies himself as The Lord of the Underworld. After Orpheus asks, the child says he does not like Orpheus' music. He says he prefers happy, rhythmic songs.

The...