| Bacchae by Euripides |
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Masters’ Cinema: Theodoros Terzopoulos Wed 10 October, 6pm Cimena Room Admission free 1,10’, 17 June 1986, Delphi stadium, Delphi Translation: Leonidas Zenakos, director: Theodoros Terzopoulos, stage/costume design: Giorgos Patsas, music: Nikos Philippidis, actors: Akis Sakellariou (Dionysus), Sophia Michopoulou (Tiresias, Agave), Giorgos Symeonidis (Messengers A & B), Dimitris Siakaras (Pentheus), Theodoros Polyzonis (Cadmus), Eurykleia Sofroniadou (Chorus) Languages: Greek with English subtitles  The plot of The Bacchae mixes history with myth to recount the story of the god Dionysus’s tumultuous arrival in Greece. As a relatively new god to the pantheon of Olympian deities, Dionysus was not immediately accepted. His early rites, originating in Thrace or Asia, included wild music and dancing, drunken orgies and bloody sacrifice. Pentheus, the king of Thebes opposed the cult of Dionysus. He confronted the god and was sent to his bloody death at the hands of his own mother and a frenzied band of maenads. Dionysus represents the world of instincts and confronts Pentheus, who represents logic, a world founded on the traditional ethics and order. The invasion of Dionysiac element breaks through this formal code and assaults the settled and methodical intellection. The god with its divine powers attacks king Pentheus and his earthly authority. The conflict between instinct and logic is decisive and painful. The historic production of Euripides’ Bacchae marks the founding of Attis Theatre. The performance investigates death and ecstasy, and focuses on adolescence as a time of revelation. Both Dionysus and Pentheus are seen as vulnerable adolescents, young animals confronting each other with tragic consequences. The actors seem to move continuously in a state of demonic possession. We see the emotional effects of Dionysus, both on those who worship him and on those who deny him. We are confronted with the agony of Agave, who holds her son’s head in her hand thinking at first he is a lion, but slowly realizing the agonising truth. This is a distillation of Dionysus: we see his tragic and ecstatic aspects, the god who can be “most fierce and most gentle to men”. |