Legend of Lovers

When they meet in a railroad station and fall in love and escape by themselves to a shabby hotel room, it is the rest of the world that seems unreal. Their lovers' avowals are their center of the universe. Everything that goes on around them seems mean and contrived. In the Greek legend, Eurydice dies; Orpheus persuades death to restore her to him. But death extracts one condition: Orpheus must never look at her. M. Anouilh has restated the legend in terms of a romantic street musician and the soubrette of a provincial theatre troupe.