Alcestis

Written by Ted Hughes in the final months of his life, the guilt-ridden, widower protagonist of Euripides’s Alcestis prompted comparisons to the death of Hughes’s first wife, the poet Sylvia Plath. Whatever its biographical content, Hughes’s version of Alcestis stands on its own as a meditation on life, death, sacrifice, and redemption and toured the United Kingdom in 2000 to widespread acclaim.

In Alcestis, King Admetos, doomed to an early death, is given a chance to live if someone will agree to die in his place. When others refuse, his wife Alcestis unexpectedly offers up her own life. After Alcestis has died, questions remain: Was Admetos ignoble in accepting his wife’s sacrifice? How does one carry on with dignity after irrevocable loss? Is any loss truly irrevocable? The entrance of a naïvely brash Heracles brings a gust of comedic whimsy and steers the play to a surprisingly hopeful conclusion.