Hadestown and Storytellers: a tragedy of hopefulness in three phrases

“He could make you see

what the world could be,

in spite of the way that it is.”

I’ve been obsessing over Hadestown over the last couple of days, and obsessing over this line in particular.

The whole show is one of the most artistic musicals of recent times, but this line itself is art in its purest form.

It has thrown me through a philosophical loop.

The following contains very slight spoilers for a 5 year old musical and a thousands of years old Greek myth.

“He could make you see…”

Other shows or other writers might have used the simple ‘show you’ in this situation. In fact throughout the show ‘Show the way’ is a recurring lyric.

"Show the way so we can see,

Show the way the world could be...

Show the way so we believe..."

But ‘showing’ is not the same as ‘making you see’. Showing is the act of an artist, seeing is the act of the observer. A good artist will not show you what they want, they will make you see.

Orpheus, the poet and musician, is a storyteller and artist. It's his power.

That old writing adage of ‘show don’t tell’ is kind of getting outdated. 'Make your audience see', through whatever techniques you possess, is much better advice. Let the audience create their own art, their own meaning, through your art and your story. Don’t show them the world or the story you are creating. Make them see it for themselves.

Make them see beyond what can be shown to them. Give them what they need to create something in their mind.

“...what the world could be…”

This is what gets me the most; what the world ‘could be’. Not ‘will be’ or even ‘should be’. Once again, it is the artist, the storyteller giving the power to the people. It’s not up to the storyteller to change the world, it’s up to the storyteller, the artist, to try to put meanings into works. And not necessarily only one meaning, or even the meaning that they intended.

What the world could be: There are possibilities, endless ones.

‘Could be’ is a phrase for the hopeful. Good things can happen if you think they can.

Storytellers can let you see an infinite number of different worlds, endings, beginnings. They can let you see love, hope and despair. A world in which everything is right. And a world even worse than the one we inhabit. And if we see it, we know it could be.

Storys and the storyteller give us power. They tell us what could be.

“...in spite of the way that it is.”

The world is, and always will be, flawed. There will be haves, have nots, the corrupt, the power-hungry, the human. No one can change this. Can they?

But we can imagine how it could be different. This is the role of the storyteller.

A storyteller cannot change the world, it will be as it is. A storyteller has no real power in themselves - but their stories do.

And that is in spite of all the flaws of this world. A storyteller can reach beyond this world into another to give hope of better things. And the desire to want better things for all.

And once something is imagined, then who is to say that it can’t ultimately happen.

This line occurs at the most tragic part of the show, when nihilism, pessimism and hopelessness are at their heights. The tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice has been told for thousands of years, and the ending never changes. Orpheus always fails, in every single retelling. Why then keep telling it? Why put ourselves through the tragedy and sadness?

The answer is simple. Next time it might change. There is always hope. We can imagine what this world could be, in spite of the way that it is.

That is the power of the story. That is the power of this lyric.

"You see someone's got to tell the tale,

whether or not it turns out well,

maybe it will turn out this time..."