Work Text:
HERMES:
A'ight...
(sung quietly, grieving.)
It’s an old song
It's an old tale from long ago
It's an old song
(a long pause, and then spoken with a frown.)
...Have you noticed, though?
ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE:
(frozen, unmoving. Hermes steps closer to the scene. Orpheus... isn't facing Eurydice.)
HERMES:
(sung)
Something’s changed...
Don't ask why, brother, don't ask how
(spoken, in a murmur:)
Maybe he tastes the wind and the rain.
(sung, frowning deeper)
The song was sung again and again
(spoken in almost a whisper as he realizes)
Until this was how it ends:
(instrumentals start, as Hermes’s hope begins to grow:)
See, Orpheus was a poor boy
ORPHEUS: (spoken, stopping suddenly just as he’s about to turn around.)
Anybody got a match?
HERMES: (spoken hushed, as if he can hardly believe what he’s seeing)
But he had a gift to give.
OPRHEUS: (reaching blindly back as a hand stretches out of the darkness with the match)
Give me that
HERMES:
(spoken)
He could make you see how the world could be
(sung)
In spite of the way that it is!
(spoken, as Orpheus lights the lantern)
Can you see it?
COMPANY: (hums; exposed to the light, the Fates shrink back)
HERMES: Can you hear it?!
(sung, as the company inches forward, rounding a corner)
Can you feel it,
like a train?
(spoken, as the lights begin to brighten)
Is it coming?
Is it coming this way?
(sung, as all the lights go up, revealing Euridice holding the matches:)
On a sunny day, there was a couple in love,
On the road from hell where the grass turned green!
That couple looked and that couple saw:
That spring had come again!
With a love song,
PERSEPHONE: (amazed at the back of the workers)
With a love song!
COMPANY
With a love song
HERMES:
With a tale of a love from long ago.
It's a glad song
COMPANY:
It’s a glad song
PERSEPHONE:
It's a glad song
HERMES:
A song come up from deep down below.
It's an old song!
EURYDICE: (taking Orpheus’s hand)
It’s an old song.
ORPHEUS (taking hers with a grin)
It's an old song.
COMPANY: (The workers gathering around them)
It's an old song.
HERMES:
It's an old tale from way back when
And we're gonna sing it again and again!
We're gonna sing, we're gonna sing–
ALL:
It's a love song
It's a tale of a love from long ago.
It's a glad song
Come up from deep down below.
It's an old song!
It's an old tale from way back when,
And we're gonna sing it again and again!
HERMES: (as Orpheus and Euridice throw their arms around each other)
We're gonna sing it again.