My first encounter with this two-part storytelling-and-song exercise was during the Sydney Fringe Festival in  2019, in the small reading room of what used to be the Newtown School of Arts.

It’s essentially the same (lovely) show, but this time scaled up and presented in one of the most splendid libraries in the country: the Mortlock Chamber in the State Library of South Australia. The work now comes accompanied by a string quartet, too.

Written and performed by Alexander Wright and singer-guitarist Phil Clive Grainger, ORPHEUS transposes the ancient Greek myth to the modern-day city. Our Orpheus is a quiet, musically gifted young chap named Dave, who encounters the great love of his life one night during a blackout at a karaoke bar while singing Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing in the Dark. If that sounds a little pedestrian for such a mythic meeting … well, trust me, it isn’t.

Wright&Grainger’s ORPEUS. Photo © Mau Seghetto

Told at breakneck speed in slam-poetry style and interspersed with soaring folk-pop songs, Orpheus aims straight for the heart and hits it most of the time. The catwalk staging of this production presents a few acoustic challenges for the audience seated along it (it might take you a few minutes to tune into Wright’s accent, and the Mortlock’s vaulted ceiling adds some unhelpful reverberation), but his passionate delivery cuts through.

Restrained use of a string quartet that moves around the space (and, at one point, takes the library elevator down to Hades) heightens the already considerable emotional impact of Grainger’s singing.

There is a little audience-participation element to the show, but it’s of the kind that opens you up to feeling all the feels.

Staged as a separate production, EURYDICE is a kind of reverse-shot take on the myth, one that invents a backstory introducing us to Eurydice (played by the Scottish writer-performer Megan Shandley) as a determined three-year-old with dreams of becoming a superhero. Time passes and the focus turns to her life before meeting Orpheus/Dave on that fateful night in a karaoke bar — her high school love affair and marriage to Ari (a prosaic take on Aristaeus, god of bees, among other things), a relationship doomed to fail.

Grainger is again on hand to supply songs and acting support, though this time the music is electro-pop flavoured, played on a MIDI controller as well as a guitar. Speakers under the metal catwalk amplify the dance beat set by Grainger’s foot.

Again, the narrative style is fast and furious, though Shandley (a very engaging storyteller) is more closely tethered to the script she carries in her hand. Wright, having performed his part more than 650 times over the years, knows the piece by heart.

The greater issue here lies in the writing, which, though it credits Eurydice with agency and history, doesn’t rise to the heart-stopping heights of ORPHEUS.

Altogether though, the two parts form a stirring evening of bardic entertainment in a setting that’s as evocative as it is beautiful. Recommended.

Wright&Grainger presents ORPHEUS/EURYDICE at the Stage Library of South Australia until 22 March.