The MADC opens its 2011-12 season with a contemporary adaptation by David Greig of The Bacchae by Euripides.
The Bacchae tells how hedonist Dionysus, the god of wine, having established his divinity in eastern lands has come home with his cult of female “Bakkhai” to clear his mother’s name. The son of Zeus intends to establish the worship which he insists is now his due and is most angered by his homeland’s refusal to acknowledge his divinity.
Directed by Toni Attard, The Bacchae is a vibrant and dynamic production, creatively incorporating drama, music, movement and dark humour.
Kurt Castillo, who plays Dionysus, explains how this god’s charismatic presence enraptures the local woman, awakening their own Bacchic spirit. Under his spell they worship him and take part in great celebrations of dance and wine, performing his sensual rituals with a fierce, animalistic devotion. In doing so, Dionysus unleashes his feminine sexuality on the city threatening the destruction of social order.
Dionysus’s nemesis Pentheus, the young King of Thebes, refuses to even consider the possibility that Bacchic worship has a place in his world. Yet he is desperate to know what happens on the hillside where the Bacchae worship their new god. He must gain access to Dionysian sexual mystery, but is afraid of losing himself. Dionysus suggests that the best way to see the mysteries would be for Pentheus to dress up as a woman. The prince is worried: “Dress up as a woman? But – I’m a man!”
Eventually his curiosity overcomes his fear, leading to a bloody and terrible finale at the hands of the legendary Bakkhai, which his mother Agave, overcome by the Bacchic spirit, also participates in.
Both the composer of the original music, Alexander Vella Gregory, and the choreographer, Sandra Mifsud, have taken their inspiration from the text as the translation has kept the original rhyme and rhythm of the original Greek play. The script itself is very descriptive, extremely visual and Ms Mifsud’s choreography reveals the many levels of emotion that make the play so exciting.
Mr Vella Gregory’s music reflects and enhances the changing emotions of the play, from ritualistic, to anger, to religious ecstasy-fuelled wine for a heightened sense of happiness while keeping to a contemporary context.
Manuel Cauchi, who plays Pentheus’s grandfather Kadmos, sees Euripides’s story as being relevant to anywhere, anytime and anyhow. In a nutshell, he says “it deals with the battle between the irrational and the ordered, conservatism and liberalism; and how much each one of us allows ourselves to lean one way or the other.”
For Mr Cauchi, Mr Attard’s interpretation of The Bacchae promises to be a spectacle of light, dance, music and high emotion with a strikingly contemporary verve to it. “In the true Dionysian spirit, ‘no limits’ are the keywords. After all Dionysus is the god of theatre – not to be missed.”
The cast of The Bacchae also includes Paul Portelli as Teirisias, Pia Zammit as Agave, and Philip Leone Ganado as Pentheus. The Bakkhai, an integral feature of this Greek tragedy, are Laura Best, Coryse Borg, Nicola Abela Garrett, Maria Pia Meli, Veronica Stivala and Marta Vella.
• The Bacchae is being staged at the MITP on October 21-23, 27-29 and November 4-6. Tickets may be obtained by phone on 9999 6232 and 7979 6232 or online: www.madc.biz.