By Jennifer Beasley.
Evocative, poetic and primal, What Lies Beneath reframes the myth of Persephone as the final taboo of a woman’s sexual awakening and reclamation of her power.
It’s hard to believe that this is playwright Sarah Miller’s first play. A beautiful retelling of the accepted Persephone and Demeter Greek myth, where Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest/Summer, mourns her daughter who is abducted and raped by the God of the underworld, Hades, and thus, through a deal with Zeus, is allowed to reunite annually with her again, ending the yearly winter.
In a tight fifty minutes, Miller manages to convey deep emotions, through song, spoken poetics in Greek, English and Italian, the use of Shamanic drums, rattles and the Tarantella, expressive choreography by Rosa Voto and an incredible soundscape of organic cries and moans that is so visceral it hurts by Ria Soemardjo.
There is an ethereal quality within this play. It comes as no surprise to me that Miller herself is a Menstrual Menopause Facilitator as this piece is the culmination of all she stands for, with a powerful retelling that embraces a woman’s sexuality and sheds light on societal taboos.
As Kore (meaning Maiden), the nickname her mother Demeter gives to Persephone, experiences her Menarche, or first period, we begin to see a side of the myth that has previously been overwritten in history. The accompanying physical and budding emotional changes jitter out of actress Daphne Gerolymou-Papadopoulos in an incredible physical performance as she writhes upon the fabulous silver reflective set by Louisa Fitzgerald (amazing costumes too), the hanging veils symbolic of the transformative experience.
Her mother, Demeter, an emotional response by talented Roso Voto (who is also the Director of the Melbourne School of Tarantella) has an unnatural co-dependency relationship with her daughter and refuses to see that Kore wants to be the Maiden no more. With narrations by Hecate, played by the ever-graceful Clare Larman, the Wise Woman and Goddess of thresholds, who is at once the triple force of Maiden, Mother and Crone (the earlier version of Father, Son and Holy Ghost), a strange discord takes place. The transformation of Kore into Persephone is beginning.
Weaving through other retellings from the Eleusinian Mysteries and Homerian texts, Heceta uncovers the sexual awaking of Persephone, as the anguished cries (the seeds) from the underworld, and the appearance of Hades as a Stallion make the young woman lust for sexual union. “Life lusts for life”.
This story rejects the concept that Persephone is raped by Hades. Rather, through a frenzied sexual dance, Persephone comes into her own. It is she who makes these choices, hungry to enter the feminine darkness of the depths. The midpoint where Gerolymou-Papadopoulos tears down the veil truly channels this acceptance of her journey into the underworld.
Insightful direction by Cassandra Fumi as both Persephone and Heceta walk backwards in a circle in this liminal space is profound. Symbolic of the mirrored nature and the reversal of roles in the first half– what is above is below. Creepy yet mesmerising, it is the only time I felt a connection with the character of Heceta, who otherwise seems too distant and flat.
The increased tempo is a turning point, aided by sharp lighting from Amelia Lumley. Persephone states that women are seen by men as “To flow with the river of blood, home to the dwelling place, a place that has been shamed and disgrace that so many of us believe the lies that we’re inferiors, that our bodies are too messy, too fleshy, too moist, too much, and too bloody.”
As a pomegranate falls from the overhead, Persephone greedily gorges on it. Not for her the petite nibble of the six seeds as written by men, and that are supposed to bind her to Hades for six months, but an orgy of consumption, until she declares proudly, “I am the Queen of the Underworld, and I feed on the nourishment of death and decay.”
Reviewing the classic myths, I think Miller has got this right. Persephone is the only God with so much power, even more than Zeus. She is both Goddess of Spring and Queen, and she beckons to all women to accept their bodies and reject the shame that has been imposed upon them.
I am not surprised to see that this show for the Melbourne Fringe Festival has sold out, and the inhabitation of Persephone by Gerolymou-Papadopoulos is outstanding. Many thanks to Clare Mendes of The Melbourne Writers’ Theatre for organising this review for Theatre Matters and Sarah Bird Miller for accepting the invitation.
What Lies Beneath plays at The Explosives Factory at 6:30pm until the 18th October, 2025.
