Tale of a time-tested woman

A pleasing tension rolls off the stage in A Coffin in Egypt, the emotional differential between Ricky Ian Gordon's optimistic score and his dejected main character, the widow Bledsoe. Such contrasts bloom in abundance. Myrtle Bledsoe once had beauty and wealth but was tethered to a philandering, murderous husband, and despite great cultural ambition found herself mostly in rural, early-20th-century Egypt, Texas, pining for something beyond the horizon.