James Karas
The Stratford Festival has had a spotty history in its production of
Ancient Greek drama but it steps up to the plate this year with a production Euripides’
The Bacchae. Classicists and admirers of great drama rejoice.
They are using the translation, indeed version, by Anne Carson, a
brilliant poet and translator and a major scholar of Euripidean drama.
She and the Stratford Festival prefer the less familiar name of Bakkhai
but that is unimportant.
Just note that previous have started and the official opening will be
on June 16, 2017. The production runs until September 23, 2017 at the Tom Patterson
Theatre.
I shamelessly copy a part of Stratford’s press release if only to
encourage people to demand that the Stratford Festival get over its association
with Lethe when it comes to programming Greek drama and acquire a meaningful relationship
with Mnemosyne.
Lucy Peacock and Mac Fyfe. Photo: Lynda Churilla
Bakkhai begins previews
May
27, 2017… Director
Jillian Keiley’s intoxicating production of Euripides’ Bakkhai,
in a new version by Canadian poet Anne Carson, starts previews today at
the Tom Patterson Theatre.
When
the play begins, the demi-god Dionysos has arrived in Thebes in human form with
vengeance in his heart. Derided as an imposter by the city’s ruler, King
Pentheus, this charismatic stranger has induced madness in the Theban women,
who have run off to join his cult of female followers, the Bakkhai. News of
their frenzied rioting prompts Pentheus to declare war on the Bakkhai – who
include his own mother, Agave – only to be lured by Dionysos toward a fate of
the starkest horror.
“These
Bakkhic worshippers have burst their way out of a brutal patriarchy to discover
sexual liberation and freedom for the first time,” says Ms Keiley. “Their
sexual awakening is not bound by fear and shame. It is in service to achieving
a higher spiritual, tantric worship of the god of ecstasy. The king is punished
for denying the existence of the god Dionysos, not allowing the women
worshippers the freedom to practise their sensuous rites – and worse, making
sure he steals his own pleasure from the women’s bodies first.”
“This
story, as old as western civilization, addresses perhaps the most fundamental
division within each and every one of us: the division between the rational and
the irrational,” says Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino. “And it reminds
us not to underestimate the latter. Since the Enlightenment of the 18th
century, we’ve been trying to persuade ourselves of the superior power of
reason. But one of the lessons we’re learning right now, as our world starts
surprising and dismaying us at every turn, is that we’ve underestimated our own
unpredictability.”
The
cast features Mac Fyfe as Dionysos and Lucy Peacock as Agave,
with Graham Abbey as Tieresias and Gordon S. Miller as Pentheus.
The
creative team includes Designer Shawn Kerwin, Lighting Designer Cimmeron
Meyer, Composer Veda Hille, Sound Designer Don Ellis, Music
Director Shelley Hanson, Fight Director John Stead and Intimacy
Choreographer Tonia Sina.
Bakkhai officially
opens on Friday, June 16, and runs until September 23.
Cast
(in alphabetical order)
Tieresias.............................................................
Graham Abbey
Member
of the Bakkhai..................................... Sarah Afful
Kadmos.............................................................
Nigel Bennett
Member
of the Bakkhai..................................... Jasmine Chen
Member
of the Bakkhai..................................... Laura Condlln
Member
of the Bakkhai..................................... Rosemary Dunsmore
Dionysos............................................................
Mac Fyfe
Guard................................................................
Brad Hodder
Pentheus............................................................
Gordon S. Miller
Servant..............................................................
André Morin
Agave................................................................
Lucy Peacock
Herdsman..........................................................
E.B. Smith
Member
of the Bakkhai..................................... Quelemia Sparrow
Member
of the Bakkhai..................................... Diana Tso
Member
of the Bakkhai..................................... Bahia Watson
Artistic
Credits
Director.............................................................
Jillian Keiley
Designer............................................................
Shawn Kerwin
Lighting
Designer.............................................. Cimmeron Meyer
Composer..........................................................
Veda Hille
Sound
Designer................................................. Don Ellis
Music
Director................................................... Shelley Hanson
Fight
Director.................................................... John Stead
Intimacy
Choreographer.................................... Tonia Sina
Producer............................................................
David Auster
Casting
Director................................................ Beth Russell
Creative
Planning Director................................ Jason Miller
Associate
Director............................................. Charlotte Gowdy
Assistant
Designer............................................. Patricia Reilly
Assistant
Lighting Designer.............................. Hilary Pitman
Stage
Manager................................................... Bona Duncan
Assistant
Stage Managers................................. Kimberly Brown, Ann Stuart
Apprentice
Stage Manager................................ Alice Ferreyra
Production
Assistant......................................... Fran Barker
Production
Stage Manager................................ Janine Ralph
Technical
Director............................................. Sean Hirtle
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