The Rise of Psyche
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After a short introductory scene in modern times where we meet Kaitlyn, the heroine of the story, the play picks up in the middle of the traditional myth of Eros and Psyche. Psyche has already gazed upon her husband, Eros, injured upon one of his own arrows, and now Aphrodite is laying impossible tasks upon Psyche as punishment. We quickly learn that beyond punishing Psyche for her actions and her beauty, Aphrodite is using her as a pawn in a more sinister and complex scheme – to overthrow Zeus and become ruler of Olympus. Even Providence, Psyche’s only friend and ally, is revealed to be an agent of the Goddess of Beauty.
After Psyche has descended into the Underworld, Aphrodite’s plan comes to fruition. Zeus is banished into Tartarus, and Beauty takes the throne of Olympus with her husband, the God of Technology, at one hand and her lover, the God of War, at the other. As his last act, however, Zeus places a new star in the heavens, rewriting the Fates by forming a bond between Psyche and Kaitlyn, who will be born when the Age of Pisces transitions into the Age of Aquarius.
Trapped in the Underworld as the centuries pass, Psyche is reforged in the crucible of Aphrodite’s tormenting. Her only lifeline is the mysterious Shade, who comes to Psyche in her times of greatest despair and helps her to endure through the ages. When Kaitlyn comes to Greece, following some inexplicable calling, it is Shade who guides her into the Underworld to find and rescue Psyche.
When Kaitlyn and Psyche at last come together, Aphrodite is there waiting. She reveals that Shade is actually her agent Providence in disguise. As all seems lost, however, we learn that Providence and Apollo have actually been working under a higher prophesy, and Aphrodite is herself betrayed and cast into Tartarus.
Although Psyche’s body can never leave, Kaitlyn has not eaten the food of the Underworld, and in fulfillment of Zeus’ last act, the two souls exchange bodies. Kaitlyn-now-Psyche returns to the world above, and is reunited with the Eros, the god of Love. The two come to rule side by side in Olympus to usher in the Age of Aquarius, an era in which the world is shaped in the balance of Love and Soul.
This play is dedicated to Christine Hurst, who, in her commitment to helping the uncountable swaths of humanity trapped in their own Underworlds, was the inspiration for the character of Kaitlyn.