Send a text

Hadestown is a story about politics.  You’ve seen the show, so you know that it’s the ancient Greek story of Orpheus put in a fictional but modern setting – a “a post-apocalyptic  American Depression  era.”  It’s a world of environmental ravage and resource scarcity.  Hades himself is unambiguously an industrialist, a mine-owner, and a tyrant.  “It was hard times” is a line straight from the dialogue of the show

There is no doubt that Anais Mitchell, the author, is putting political issues right in the front and center of the audience.  And the question is – what are we gonna do about it?

Today we will talk about Mitchell’s answer – how should the public respond to income inequality, unfair working conditions, environmental destruction, and sexism?  A truism is that those who benefit from our current arrangement aren’t going to walk away from the things that are making them filthy rich just because it’s the right thing to do.  We have to do something to force the change.  There aren’t a lot of great models out there –

So, what should we do?

And to me, this is really the heart of the show, because while the problems that Mitchell puts in the script are obvious, the obvious answer to all those problems in the script is – seems a little futile.  We should find a musician who will write a song good enough to restore balance to the universe, it won’t work, and then we’ll toast him for trying.  Just like Sisyphus pushing his rock up a hill for all eternity, we should try again.

I mean, that’s not Annie.

Is that all there is to it?  Is that enough?  Is that a satisfying answer?  Mitchell is right – the environment is in a lot of trouble, and the guys who are destroying it are all about building walls and not so much empowering the workers.  What should we do?

If you want a big answer you gotta ask a big question, and Mitchell has certainly done that.  How do you get out of Hadestown without looking back?  We’ll see if we can figure out what Orpheus could not, on this episode of THM.

References

UNEP: https://www.unep.org/interactives/geo-7-feature/2025

Support the show

Id. d’épisode : 1000749058319

GUID : Buzzsprout-18478116

Date de publication : 10/2/2026 à 11:00:00