“I have only one major theme for all my work which is the destructive impact of society on the sensitive, non-conformist individual”, wrote the great American playwright Tennessee Williams. In his play “Orpheus Descending” T. Williams explores the origin of evil that poisons human society and tries to understand whether we are really too weak to cope with the past and escape from our hell.

In the text of the play one can find a close analogy with the myth of Orpheus. The main character Val Xavier plays the guitar and impresses everybody around him just like Orpheus, who pacified wild animals with the sounds of cithara. Tennessee Williams transfers the ancient Greek myth that underlies his emotional drama about a lonely rebel man and a married woman who has suffered more than one tragic loss, to a small town in the southern United States. This very town becomes a real hell where Orpheus, according to Williams, descends to bring Eurydice back to life.