15 April 2015
By Euripides and translated by David Stuttard. Directed by Jeremy Davies.
Dionysus, the Ancient Greek god of wine and revelry, seeks revenge on those who do not honour him. He uses his female followers (the bacchae) in a tale of divine retribution, focussed on the king of Thebes, his cousin Pentheus.
An exciting opportunity to be involved in a rehearsed staged reading of Euripides’ tragedy, Bacchae.
This is a staged reading, using video and original music to enhance the drama of the scenes.
Auditions: Wednesday 28 February and Friday 1 March, 7.30pm
Performances: Saturday 6 April, 3.00pm and 7.30pm.
A Staged Reading?
Staged readings are opportunities for actors and audience to engage with plays in a live setting with minimal use of staging. It is like, for example, going to a live broadcast of a radio play at the BBC. Scripts will be in evidence and actors will be seated when not performing, but there will be choreographed movement, original music, lighting and video.
Why Bacchae?
Bacchae gives voice to the anxieties of a city that knows it is in peril. Athens, once a superpower, is about to fall, its political status reduced to an irrelevance. That was in 405 BCE, the date of Bacchae’s first production. There are many who see echoes of these anxieties in the fragility of our own political structures and the growing climate crisis.
Bacchae holds up a mirror, suggesting we only have ourselves to blame. The king, Pentheus, refuses to accept that his political power is subject to natural forces (aka the god Dionysus). As a result, he not only looses control over his people, (notably women, who have discovered a new-found freedom), but his palace is destroyed and he is literally torn apart by his own mother.
Harsh? Of course, but then nature doesn’t negotiate. It always re-balances what has been unbalanced through human arrogance.