Orpheus in
the Under-
world

In the world of humans, Eurydice despises her violin-playing husband Orpheus. She has fallen in love with Aristeus, who turns out to be Pluto, the ruler of the underworld, who has come to kill Eurydice and send her to the underworld for all eternity. Orpheus discovers the plan and is ecstatic – because he cannot stand Eurydice either. Public Opinion (in our version called ‘Everyday People’) wants the plot to play out and convinces Orpheus to try to save her. All right, it’s worth a shot.

In order to find Eurydice, Orpheus and Everyday People go to Olympus, where Jupiter rules over a whole bunch of gods. But he is struggling to keep them in line and they, in turn, find his leadership style to be old-fashioned, boring and unfair – especially for women.

Pluto arrives and announces that he has found himself a human lover. Jupiter becomes jealous and wants to join Pluto to meet this Eurydice. The gods then revolt because they, too, want to go to the underworld, where they won’t die of boredom. Just as Orpheus finally reaches Jupiter and his gang, the gods are making their way in direction of the underworld. The timing could not be better because Orpheus plans to join them. Everyday People are delighted that the story is moving in the right direction.

Down in the underworld, Eurydice is bored to tears. It turns out not to be as much fun as expected. Not only that, but she has to suffer the annoyance of men endlessly trying to grope her and is absolutely fed up with men in general. To get close to Eurydice, Jupiter turns himself into a fly. Great idea. As a fly, he attempts to make advances towards her. Very clever. Eurydice starts to realise that she does not need all of these silly men and would rather stand on her own two feet.

The deities then arrive and a huge celebration is held. Orpheus also eventually arrives and meets Eurydice in the underworld. But in following the myth to NOT turn to see if she is behind him, the entire encounter becomes a forgettable digression, as Eurydice could not care less. Everyday People are by and large satisfied, so what better way to end the story than with a can-can!