The Bacchae

One of the greatest of all Greek dramas, The Bacchae powerfully dramatizes the conflict between the emotional and rational sides of the human psyche. When the people of Thebes deny the existence of the god Dionysos, he punishes them by unleashing the full force of female sexuality, thereby destroying social order and driving them to certain tragedy. By turns savage, comic, and intensely lyrical, The Bacchae, once a war cry for free love, is particularly poignant today in the aftermath of the sexual revolution. François Rochaix, who staged the complete trilogy The Oresteia two seasons ago, returns to bring Euripides’ finest and most provocative play to life.

SYNOPSIS

Dionysos, god of wine and theater, has arrived in his birthplace, the Greek city of Thebes. When he was born, his mother’s sisters refused to believe that he was the son of Zeus, and now he has returned to punish their blasphemy and prove his divinity.

Dionysos whips the Theban women into an orgiastic frenzy and leads them into the mountains, where they worship him with song and dance. Returning to the city, he confronts the young King of Thebes, his cousin Pentheus, who continues to deny the god’s existence, despite the warnings of his grandfather Kadmos and the seer Tiresias. Pentheus imprisons Dionysos, but the god escapes and, luring the king into the mountains to spy on the women’s ecstatic revels, enacts a terrible revenge on Pentheus and all the people of Thebes.