Euripides' Bacchae | Corfu | Summer 2023

The performance

The performance takes an interpretive approach to the play and explores the Dionysian mania or "Bacchae" using Euripides' speech, the combination of modern and traditional music, and a kinesiology based on the ritual of the Anasternaria, which is probably a survival of religious practices from the cult of Dionysus. Drawing on their personal experience and participation in the Anasternaria events, musician Giorgos Mavridis and director Elena Mavridou combine elements of the event, related to the Bacchae, with contemporary music. A dynamic version of Bacchae with its roots deep in tradition.

The project

Dionysus, the fruit of the union between Zeus and Semele, daughter of the king of Thebes, Cadmus, was never recognised as a god and was never honoured in his mother's homeland. Having already conquered Asia, Dionysus now arrives in Thebes, accompanied by a group of women from Lydia - the Bacchae - who follow him faithfully. His aim is to spread his worship in Thebes and throughout Greece, but also to teach a lesson to the wicked who deny him. The most impious among them is Pentheus, grandson of Cadmus and now king of Thebes.

While the Bacchic mania spreads in the city, convincing even Cadmus and the old seer Teiresias of the necessity of accepting the new god, Pentheus, absolute and uncompromising, insists on questioning the divine essence of Dionysus and decides to suppress by force the dumbfounded manifestations of this strange oriental cult. As the plot of the play unfolds, Pentheus slips into icy legitimacy, and falls into forbidden desire. He goes from being the punisher of Bacchae to becoming its helpless victim. In the end, he will be led to his fate dressed as a woman, bringing the entire royal house of Thebes to ruin. Though a stranger to the city, Dionysus was already secretly festering in her heart, as well as somewhere deep within her arrogant monarch.

Credits

Translation Theodoros Stephanopoulos

Directed by  Elena Mavridou

Music George Mavridis

Set - Costumes  Dimitra Liakura

Lights Pericles Mathiellis

Dramatist Katerina Diakoumopoulou

Masks - Sculpture : Alekos Bourelias - Archlabyrinth

Assistant director Petros Alafouzos

Assistant set designer/ costume designer Eugenia Bourda

Video Thomas Palivos

Photos Elias Dzoidos - Elina Younani

Production address Marina Gavriilidou

Contact Irene Lagourou

Production Fifth Epoch - Theatre of the New World

Distribution

Dionysus Dimitris Lalos

Cadmus Thanasis Dovris

Pentheus George Christodoulou

Tiresias Vicky Volioti

Slave Stergios Kontakiotis

Angelus a' George Triantaphyllides

Angelus b' Dimitra Kuza

Agave Elena Mavridou

Dance

Kiki Karaiskou, Dimitra Kouza, Sofia Koulera,

Christina Mariano, Mariam Ruhatze

Musicians on Stage

George Mavridis, Vassilis Koklas

Pre-sale

Ticketbox :

Eugeniou Voulgareos & Montseniou 2661027400

and at the theatre box offices

Ticket prices: 20 €, 17 € [ unemployed, student, pupil, over 65, disabled]