The Bacchae
After Euripides
19th April – 7th May 2016
The Blue Elephant Theatre
A wanderer returns, driving the people of the city into a ferocious and liberating frenzy. His actions excite, his message thrills, but his mission is revenge.
Euripides’ hedonistic and uncompromising final play comes to the stage in an all-new devised ensemble production. Through the use of spoken word, movement and music this thrilling production examines belief, sexuality and liberation.
A man is just a man, unless that man is God.
The production marks our return to The Blue Elephant after our sell-out production of Shakespeare’s Richard III in 2014.
The Bacchae marks the ninth Greek play in the Lazarus repertoire after Medea 2007, Elektra 2008, Hecuba 2010, Orestes 2011, Electra 2011, The Women of Troy 2012, Iphigenia in Aulis 2012 and Oedipus 2013.
#Euripides #Bacchae
“The Bacchae is an absorbing piece of theatre that finds the core of the
drama and connects it to our own time” ★★★★
Greg Jameson, Entertainment Focus
“The Bacchae is an absorbing piece of theatre that finds the core of the drama and connects it to our own time” ★★★★
Greg Jameson, Entertainment Focus
Cast and Creative
Production Shots
Cast;
Dionysus – Nick Biadon
Pentheus – Stephen Emery
Agaue – Sonja Zobel
Katrine – Lysanne Van Overbeek
Advisor – Jake W Francis
Advisor – Ashley Holman
Advisor – Aidan Valentine
Chorus Leader– RJ Seeley
Chorus 1 – Tamara Camacho
Chorus 2 – Liis Mikk
Chorus 3 – Amy Allen
Chorus 4 – Kenzie Horn
Chorus 5 – Rachel Agustsson
Chorus 6 – Katherine Judkins
Creative;
Written by Euripides
Adapted and Directed by Gavin Harrington-Odedra
Additional material written by David Bullen and the company
Costume Designed by Sorcha Corcoran
Lighting Design by Stuart Glover
Sound Design by Neil McKeown
Production Manager – Ina Berggren
Stage Manager – Mel Berry
Dramaturge – David Bullen
Assistant Director – John King
Company Photographer – Adam Trigg
Production Graphic Designer – Will Beeston
The Lazarus Post
Over the course of workshops, rehearsal and performance, actors Amy Allen (AA), Lysanne Van Overbeek (LVO), Sonja Zobel (SZ) and Kenzie Horn(KH) join with assistant director John King (JK) in bringing you up to speed with all things The Bacchae.
To follow the process click here
Production shots taken by Adam Trigg
Lazarus Future
We depend on committed audience members like you to help us continue to stage some of the greatest works ever written. Your support helps us with research and development work, community and education projects, and all the other elements that bring our productions to life. Join us, join the #LazarusFuture
★★★★ “Euripides’ final tragedy – The Bacchae – is pulsatingly brought to life…
Lazarus’s interpretation is bold and mesmerising”
Greg Jameson, Entertainment Focus
★★★★ “Euripides’ final tragedy – The Bacchae – is pulsatingly brought to life… Lazarus’s interpretation is bold and mesmerising”
Greg Jameson, Entertainment Focus
Euripides
Euripides was born in Athens, Greece, around 485 B.C. He became one of the best-known and most influential dramatists in classical Greek culture; of his 90 plays, 19 have survived. His most famous tragedies, which reinvent Greek myths and probe the darker side of human nature, include Medea, The Bacchae, Hippolytus, Alcestis and The Trojan Women.
Box Office
Dates 19th April - 7th May, Tuesday – Saturday 8.00pm
Venue The Blue Elephant Theatre, Camberwell.
Tickets £15.00, £12.50 (Concessions) £10 (Previews)
To Book www.blueelephanttheatre.co.uk
PRESS AND OPENING NIGHT 21st April 2016
Run Time 60 Minutes approx
“Another fascinating production by Lazarus that
challenges audiences to look at a classic with different eyes”
Carolin Kopplin, UK Theatre Newtwork
The Bacchae top ten facts...
1. Although we can’t be certain, The Bacchae was probably the final Euripides play ancient Athenian audiences ever saw – at least before revivals started!
2.It was first performed where all surviving Greek tragedies were: at an annual spring festival dedicated to Dionysus.
3.Euripides died in 406 BCE and his final trilogy of plays was probably presented at the festival the following year. They won first place in the competition amongst playwrights.
4.The Bacchae was very popular in antiquity following its first performance. Alexander the Great’s mother Olympias, herself a follower of Dionysus, is said to have performed the role of Agave – with her son as Pentheus.
5. Some of the text of Euripides’ play is actually missing, leading to a very frustrating gap just as Dionysus makes his final appearance. Scholars have been able to reconstruct some of the missing text, however, thanks to a bizarre Byzantine poem from the eleventh- or twelfth century CE called the Christus Patiens.
6. In 1908, renowned actress and suffragist Lillah McCarthy convinced her friend William Poel to stage the play while her husband – the famous actor and director Harley Granville-Barker – was away in Ireland.
7. The Performance Group’s Dionysus in 69 was a particularly notorious production that has had a lasting impact on American theatre. A partly devised version that was influenced by anthropological theories on ritual and community, there was a lot of nudity and as well as a kiss between two men – taboo at the time.
8.In Britain, meanwhile, the fledging National Theatre commissioned novelist Maureen Duffy to adapt The Bacchae in 1969. The resulting play, Rites, was set in a women’s toilets and aimed to tell a similar story but from Agave’s perspective. Caryl Churchill later co-wrote an adaptation with David Lan and Joint Stock theatre company called A Mouthful of Birds, a dance-theatre hybrid that sought to explore gender and violence.
9.The Bacchae has seen a resurgence in popularity in twenty-first British theatre: including the National Theatre of Great Britain (2002), the National Theatre of Scotland (2007), Manchester Royal Exchange (2010), and even Shakespeare’s Globe (2013). The role of Dionysus has attracted some big names, from Alan Cumming in 2007 through to Ben Whishaw in the Almeida’s production last year.
10. The critic Terry Eagleton has described Dionysus as the first religious terrorist – and many performances have been inspired by the same idea.
Curated and written by Dramaturgue David Bullen.
"Lazarus’ productions always flourish in ensemble scenes, and the
ferocity of the chorus in this production was striking"
Euston Street Diaries
"Lazarus’ productions always flourish in ensemble scenes, and the ferocity of the chorus in this production was striking"
Euston Street Diaries
An introduction to Greek Theatre
The Ancient Greek drama, is a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece 700 BC. The city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political, and military power during this period, was its centre, where it was institutionalised as part of a festival called the Dionysia, which honoured the god Dionysus.
Tragedy (late 500 BC), comedy (490 BC), and the satyr play were the three dramatic genres to emerge there. Athens exported the festival to its numerous colonies and allies in order to promote a common cultural identity.
Film courtesy of The National Theatre.
“A striking new devised version of The Bacchae… An enigmatic and
seductive take on this Greek tragedy to end all tragedies”
There Ought To Be Clowns
“A striking new devised version of The Bacchae… An enigmatic and seductive take on this Greek tragedy to end all tragedies”
There Ought To Be Clowns
The Bacchae in the press
Enterainment Focus talk with Nick Biadon who plays the role of Dionysus in The Bacchae
Entertainment Focus talk with Gavin Harrington-Odedra and what to expect from this radical new production
UK Theatre Network talk with Director Gavin Harrington-Odedra and Actor Nick Biadon all things Bacchae
Theatre Bubble announce The Bacchae
London Theatre Guide announce Lazarus Rebellion Season
EUGreeka share the Bacchae news
The wonderful folk of Entertainment Focus spreading The Bacchae news