Through re-telling Greek myths, Hadestown is a damning condemnation of capitalism
As London was about to go into its fifth heatwave this year, it felt fitting to enter the apocalyptic world of Hadestown.
This re-telling of Greek myths is a damning condemnation of capitalism. Hadestown combines the stories of Orpheus and Eurydice and Hades and Persephone into a powerful theatre production.
It takes on some of the biggest issues of our day—climate change, racism, poverty and the brutality of capitalism.
The use of blues, folk and jazz music along with the production design is reminiscent of the Great Depression—a time of great poverty and suffering that was followed by the slaughter of millions.
The reference to the 1930s resonates today with the rise of the far right, economic crisis and war.
Eurydice, who is living in poverty, is convinced by Hades that her only escape is by selling herself to him.
She travels to the underworld with him, where she discovers hell as a factory floor in which the workers are both alienated from themselves and from the nature above. The industrialisation that sees both workers and nature crushed by capitalism is a theme throughout.
Hades is both the factory manager and the leader of the underworld.
The parallels with Donald Trump are apparent, particularly when Hades asks “Why do we build the wall, my children?” The reply from the workers—“Because we have and they have not / Because they want what we have got / The enemy is poverty / And the wall keeps out the enemy / And we build the wall to keep us free.”
This description of why workers are pulled by right wing ideas is counterposed to collective action.
Eurydice’s love interest Orpheus attempts to break her out but fails, until the other workers realise their chains and join them in their struggle against Hades.
Hades agrees to let Orpheus, Eurydice and the workers go with one caveat—that Orpheus must not look back.
Hadestown, written in the shadow of the Iraq war, highlights the brutality of capitalism.
The system tears the joy out of life and forces both nature and people to succumb to its relentless pursuit of profit. We must all look forward, not back, to a new world built out of the ashes of the old.
- Hadestown is on show at the Lyric Theatre, 29 Shaftsbury Avenue, London W1D 7ES
