Thornton Wilder referred to The Alcestiad as “a mixture of religious revival, mother-love-dynamite, and heroic derring-do.” In it, he retells the ancient legend of Alcestis, Queen of Thessaly, who gave her life for her husband, Admetus, beloved of Apollo, and was brought back from the underworld by Hercules. When the brave and confused Alcestis returns from the dead, asking large questions about what matters most in life and how we lead it, we catch more than a glimpse of Emily in Act III of Our Town. Like Emily, Wilder’s Alcestis is a seeker after understanding, to whom “there is only one misery, and that is ignorance.” Written in the tradition of the early Greek tragedies, this work of enormous emotional range addresses death and happiness with Wilder’s quintessential combination of plain-spoken poignancy and humor.
The Alcestiad is followed, according to Greek tradition, by a short, comic satyr play. In The Drunken Sisters, Apollo, disguised as a kitchen boy, seeks to confound the three Fates to save the life of Admetus.