*DO NOT SHARE OUTSIDE OF TUMBLR WITHOUT PERMISSION*
Sorry this isn’t my best, I was sat in the back of the stalls and it echos quite a lot in there so it isn’t great! You can absolutely hear me sniffling and the sound of my shoes squeaking.
Hadestown Act I 08-03-26 Cast Change.m4a
Hadestown Act II 08-03-26 Cast change.m4a
Also to note:
- Desmonda biting Dylan’s arm during way down ??
- Desmonda doing the katseye gap ad dance during livin it up
- Someone yelling GO ON DYLAN during the start
- Desmonda and Dylan being unable to get through promises like those two were going through it
Its important to keep in mind that regardless of how it’s implied in various versions of the songs how the relationship between Hades and Persephone began, we are not meeting them then. We are meeting them years later. After the honeymoon phase has ended. Because Hades is no longer on his knees, singing to his lover who belongs to the world above. And Persephone is no longer the naïve girl who fell for a man who held her so tightly, and cherished her like she was the whole world in his arms.
Persephone, now likely middle aged in the way gods can age, is self medicating. Its not that she doesn’t love her husband, she does. Its so painfully clear that she does when she tries to hug him or kiss him during the first epic as they sit on the balcony playing dominoes. So she drowns out her sorrow, her pain and her anger into alcohol (and morphine as if you take the desire for it as implied use during “Way Down Hadestown”). Because at this point, she can only feel the cycle of indulgence and indifference. When she’s above, she drinks heavily, pouring over abundance into the mortals of her mother’s realm because this is the only time she can feel the sun in her face. She drinks to avoid what will inevitably come… so she makes the sun burn hotter and encourages the mortals in the station to live like tomorrow won’t matter. Because to Persephone, it doesn’t. Because the collar around her neck reminds her that she will be taken down to where the warmth and light are artificial. Where she has to face the mortals, who come hungry and poor into her husband’s realm… where she will watch them drift and hunger as workers. Because in Hadestown, the work will never end. So down there, she does the only thing she can think of. She drinks. She offers her drinks to the workers, encouraging them to try and look beyond the wall, to see the cracks and look up at the stars. She knows they can’t. But she likes to pretend they can see what she sees.
And Hades? Well he lets her because he loves her. Regardless of how he cold shoulders her, he does love her. He longs for the days when she was his. When he felt loved by her and his heart could sing songs of love to her in the light of the sun. But when he drags her down, they argue. And they cause the storms in the world above they are too much for mortal hearts. So Hadestown keeps their workers and Persephone and Hades drift apart. But he’s desperate. He believes that if he makes Hadestown warm and bright, she’ll stay. Because his greatest fear is that one day she will leave the walls of Hadestown and never return. And he wouldn’t blame her, he’d be angry sure, but not blame. Because he doubts her. Doubts that they love they once felt is too far gone. So he does what he can think to do… he gives her diamonds, rings, bracelets and a necklace, all made of the beautiful riches of Hadestown’s mines. Because maybe that’ll make her stay…
But she never wanted that. Not riches. Not electricity and fire. She just wanted him. But she can’t say that anymore. Not now that she’s angry and numbed herself too far.
But when Orpheus sings? The song of their love… the one carried beneath their songs until the poet sings loud enough that it begins to echo through the walls… because the walls of Hadestown remember the lovers song. Because the workers can mimic that song… so loud it can break the king’s heart…
Until he can’t help but sing too. Like he once did to her. Because he may not remember the words, neither of them do because it was never meant for anyone else. But that melody? It turns him back into a man.
Because in that moment, nothing else matters. He isn’t a king. He’s just a man. Who wants to hold the girl he loves so tight in his arms…
So they dance…
And he may not be able to chase her the way he once did when she runs, giggling like a young naïve girl in love and daring her lover to chase her…
But he can find his way to her. And he can hold her in his arms… and sing the flowers back into bloom
I would gladly read your essay about VHB and Chris interpretation because for me personally they didn't click together too much. Loved Victoria but Chris felt a bit flat for me, and except the dance part I kept feeling that they are not working together too much.
Thank you so much for the ask! Buckle up, this got really long haha (I've been rotating them in my head for almost a month now, I have Toughts™ lol)
I'm first gonna start by talking about why I love each of their interpretations so much, and then why it makes them work together so well in my opinion, because I think the way they chose to act each of the character really informs their dynamic! And I'm putting this under a read-more bc it's really long!
I do find Chris Jarman's interpretation of Hades really good, as it happens! I find that he plays him as really complex and deeply conflicted in a way that made him really compelling to me. I think Hades must be quite a hard part to act, because it's so easy to make him The Bad Guy™ even though he is not. And I found Chris Jarman's interpretation managed to avoid that. He is King of the Underworld and as such, makes less than optimal or nice decisions, that is true. That is probably the closest his character has in common with the original characterisation in the Greek myth. But to me, the way Chris Jarman played Hades made it clear that it is all about, first and foremost, Persephone. This is not even subtext or interpretation (his line in Chant II "Everything I do, I do for you") but I found that Chris Jarman really managed to act that everything he does is for Persephone, even though he can sense he's losing her. More of an interpretation thing, but the way he says "I missed ya'" in Way down Hadestown? I'm a lesbian and yet, I'm with Eurydice on this one: I do wonder how it feels lol. And this line shows to me how deeply Hades loves Persephone, albeit in a way that is not necessarily how she needs to be loved. He loves her so much, he just cannot wait for her, and it's physical.
Thus, his need for control is a direct consequence of his desperate fear of losing his wife permanently, him arriving earlier is also because of that, his simmering anger all through the play is because he doesn't understand her anymore. I also found that Chris Jarman managed to convey this underlying sadness about the state of their mariage? Like I don't know how I could explain it, but there was layers to his act that I found deeply satisfying! And also, his Hades almost only has eyes for Persephone the entire time they're on stage at the same time: even when he's talking or looking at Eurydice or Orpheus, he's always technically addressing Persephone: it's always about her, because everything he does is, to me, a attempt at saving their marriage.
As for Victoria Hamilton-Barritt's interpretation, I found it to be quite similar in some aspects, mainly the underlying layers of anger, resentment and sadness about the state of their relationship. To me, it was clear she was resentful toward Hades, but out of love, if this makes sense? She clearly still loves Hades but cannot understand for the life of hers who he's becoming and why he does what he does. So, she's equally sad and angry at him, and their mutual anger and sadness feed off of each other.
And yet! VHB's Persephone still chooses to go back to Hadestown. She's not thrilled about it, she goes kicking and screaming, but she chooses to. Hades doesn't force her. In "Way down Hadestown", Chris Jarman's Hades offers his hand, and VHB's Persephone takes it, out of her own free will. To me, I interpret that as Persephone herself not knowing exactly what she wants anymore, conflicted between her love for Hades and the many griefs she has against him. The way VHB plays her shows a Persephone who spends her entire time up top drunk out of her mind and resentful, but it kinda also feels like an act to hide her true feelings about the whole situation? Because, as per the "How long" lyrics, Persephone does know she has to go back to Hadestown, she knows it's necessary for the world to function and she's not necessarily mad about that.
What she's sad and mad about is how Hades is dealing with the whole thing, and maybe her own reaction as a result. So, I interpret this all as VHB's Persephone deep down still loving Hades and wanting to go back and missing him when she's up top, but it's so buried under resentment that she can't recognise it, or she chooses to ignore it and act like she's just mad at him. And she drinks to forget the whole mess.
And in return (and this where we arrive at the "Their interpretation together is great!"), I think Chris Jarman plays Hades' absolute confusion about Persephone being so lost really well. He tries and tries and tries again to adapt to what his wife says she wants and misses from up top, and yet Persephone is never happy, and always drunk and always resentful and like. Honestly, in his shoes, I, too, would be like "WTF DO YOU WANT?????" So yeah, he's sad, and angry, and confused, and lost, and he lashes out. And Persephone is resentful of his lashing out, and his incomprehensible behaviour, and they're both miserable.
And YET! Despite all that, I found that VHB's Persephone is really fond, almost maternal, towards Eurydice, and she really roots for her and Orpheus. Given the obvious parallels between them and her husband, given how VHB herself said that her Persephone sees Hades in Eurydice and herself in Orpheus, to me that indicates that, deep-down, she still has hope about her mariage. She roots for the younger version of themselves and - again, this is my interpretation - this is a weird way for her to try and save her mariage. And in return, Chris Jarman's Hades, despite his anger and sadness, agrees to let Orpheus sings, just because his wife asked. And at this point, he's really fed up with her, and I would have understood that he would not want to listen to her. But he loves her, and he still wants to try and understand her, and that means listening to Orpheus. This is him trying to save their mariage, to try and finally know what she wants and needs.
In their version of "How Long", I found you can really see Hades' pleading to understand her, to make her understand how complicated his position his, and how Persephone is sad and angry but she still literally growls that she's his wife, that they are supposed to be together and work together. So, neither of them has really given up on them, they just don't see how they can get better, because they cannot understand each other anymore. Their collective interpretation of Hades and Persephone is, to me, the perfect representation of a couple on the brink of divorce but who still deeply love each other : how do you reconcile then your burning pit of love with all the years of change and hurt and differing needs and want? How do you find a way to deal with all the messy feelings in a way that is satisfying to every one? They want to try, but they don't know how anymore.
And this is why, to me, their reconciliation is the most satisfying of all the ones I've seen! There is so many messy feelings between them - sadness, anger, resentment, disappointment - that seeing them finally be on the same page again, even for just a few minutes, is extremely emotional. It's a mix of healing, desperate leap of faith and hope in the face of a truly mined and messed up labyrinth of history and feelings, but that's what makes it so beautiful! The way Chris Jarman's Hades is literally tearing up during all of Epic III because he's remembering how much he loved his wife in a simple, easy way, the tentative hope and - in my interpretation - his silent apology at the end when the flowers appears, VHB's little sigh/cry when it does and her belting their theme tunes during Epic III with all the desperate longing and love she puts in her Persephone; all of that makes their reconciliation really really cathartic to me, because it's clear they really love each other and they're desperate to make it work again. It's like. Their messy feelings are deep and their need to make it work is just as deep. It's some sort of weird balance : the need for reconciliation is always just as deep as the hurt people have caused each other or something.
And, to finish, this is also why their lines in "Wait for me (reprise)" also feel extremely satisfying and cathartic to me. For them, at this point and with the actors' interpretation as I felt it, trying is not just changing their dynamic a little, or changing their way of acting a little: it's really starting to listening to each other again, to really talk, to wait for each other (both physically and emotionally - because I do think one of Hades and Persephone's problem is that they have no patience for each other at all), to find again the joy they'd found with each other all those millennia ago and that they tentatively found again during their dances. To say "Wait for me" in this context is really deep. It's trusting each other that they will walk together again, figuratively, even if they're not in sync yet.
So, there you have it, my essay about how Victoria Hamilton-Barritt and Chris Jarman's interpretation of Persephone and Hades is so great! Granted, this is really just a mix of my own feelings about the whole thing with some of the actors' declarations about them but I hope you found it interesting 😊
Thank you again for the ask, and for reading to all of that if you did reach the end!
In 1699, the time traveling alien known as the Doctor (Doctor 11) and his companions Amy and Rory appeared aboard a pirate ship that was trapped on a flat sea. The pirates claimed they were being haunted by a Siren. If anyone was cut or ill, a black spot appeared on their hand and the Siren came for them. But everything was not as it appeared. ("The Curse of the Black Spot", Doctor Who vlm 3, TV)
