Some musicals are so original, so fresh and so different from most of the shows that surround them that they take you by surprise – and Hadestown is one of them. A thrilling surprise.

Featuring music, lyrics and book by American singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, Hadestown is a contemporary retelling of the doomed love story of Orpheus and Eurydice – a tale that has been told again and again, across centuries and across genres.

Abigail Adriano and Noah Mullins in Hadestown. Photo © Lisa Tomasetti

Mitchell does a clever job of combining it with another ancient Greek myth – Hades’ abduction of Persephone, goddess of the seasons, who he takes as his wife – while Hermes, the messenger of the gods, acts as a narrator.

In the myth, Eurydice died of a snakebite. Here, she accepts Hades’ offer to go to the underworld to escape poverty and the cold, but finds herself among his enslaved foundry workers.

Her singer-songwriter lover Orpheus, who has empty pockets but a full heart, comes to rescue her. Persephone is so moved by his love and bravery, that it is she who begs Hades to let him take Eurydice...