Bacchai

Synopsis

'Euripides' Bacchai is a short, sharp play, and one of the most challenging ever written. Whenever it is performed, it appears hideously timely. Man's quest for faith comes from an impulse bred of terror and of hope. If often leads to consequences as horrible as they are wonderful. Compassion breeds cruelty, redemption produces persecution. The play deals with extremes; faith is opposed by instinct, reason by emotion, male by female, chaos by order, West by East and life by death.' Peter Hall

Our Review:

20 May 2002

Until relatively recently, Greek drama had a reputation for being worthy but slightly dull. The fact that we can now look at it through new eyes is due, in a large part, to the work of Peter Hall, who has, throughout his career, championed these texts.

In reviving the Bacchai, Euripedes' last and most shocking work, Hall has once again drawn our attention to the enduring appeal of this drama, helped considerably by Colin Teevan's lively translation. Gone are the harsh cadences that have helped shaped Greek tragedy's reputation, instead, we have a work that is astonishingly modern. The clash between the ordered society ruled by the authoritarian Pentheus and the hedonsistic cult of the worshippers of Dionysus is one that has many parallels with our life. And Dionsysus' exhortation to be true to our inner desires is something all can understand in this Freudian age.

But not even Hall could have anticipated quite how relevant the text is today. The description of how an or...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com - 1 June 2002:

I've never seen a Greek play before, and was intrigued about how the masks would work. All I can say is that it was a thoroughly gripping 2 hours, and I'd recommend it to anyone who loves theatre. The 3 main leads were excellent, especially Grek Hicks who was spellbinding. When the actors take their masks off is amazing to see how ordinary they look in comparison - your imagination attributes so much more when you have body language & voice alone to focus on. Fabulous....

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