BY ALEX HO

In print | May 3, 2007

“I was crying last night because of the rehearsal process,” Randall Johnston ’09 said. “I think about sex all 24 hours a day — sex and the hunt,” Katie Chamblee ’07 exclaimed.

What horrors in Swarthmore’s theater scene are causing Johnston and Chamblee to unravel into such madness? Take caution! It’s Dionysus, the god of wine and all things pleasurable, and he’s returning with a bloodthirsty vengeance this weekend in “Bacchai,” playing at 10 p.m. on May 4 and May 5 and 8 p.m. on May 6 in the Frear Ensemble Theatre.

Euripides’ final tragedy, “Bacchai,” tells the story of Dionysus (played by Nick Malakhow ’05), who, having acquired a band of wanton female worshippers called the Bacchai, returns to his birthplace Thebes to punish the royal family for denying the Dionysian way of life and for leaving his mortal mother to die. “Bacchai” is the honors directing thesis production for Katie Van Winkle ’07.

According to Van Winkle in an e-mail, the play was especially controversial for its time; Dionysian worship was a government-sanctioned religion but with “Bacchai,” Euripides “questioned the notion [that] sacred ecstasy could coexist comfortably with governmental authority.”

If anything, the play’s message about our true animalistic nature is more controversial today. Van Winkle said, “I’ve always been fascinated by Greek drama and the expressive power that the great works can still hold for us. I was attracted to Euripides’ ‘Bacchai’ for its enduring subversive nature, its stunning language and the ease with which it escapes being pinned down by interpretation.”

Still, putting on a play more than 2,000 years old required some shrewd directorial choices. For example, the play’s climactic death, which is traditionally revealed to the audience by a messenger, is now graphically staged. “My hypothesis is ritualized actions performed on a real body will go further than messenger speeches in conveying, to a contemporary audience jaded by media depictions of violence, the wonder and terror of Dionysian rites gone wrong,” Van Winkle said.

For the cast, reliving the Dionysian spirituality is unusually powerful. Chamblee, who plays one of the titular Dionysian followers, said, “I’m really appreciative of being part of this, it’s really made me awaken the impulses inside.” Played by seven women, the Bacchai, who also double as the play’s chorus, were trained by guest artist Emmanuelle Delpech-Ramey, who studied under the famous French actor and educator, Jacques Lecoq. The dividends are extraordinary, as exhibited in one scene in which each of the chorus members tells a different version of how the Bacchai descended upon the Cithaeron and ripped herds of cattle to shreds, causing the entire theater to crescendo into a disturbing uproar.

The chorus is one of several elements that make the production an especially atmospheric experience. Van Winkle said, “I was excited by the possibilities the Bacchai raised for the incorporation of music and dance.” The production’s music is provided by taiko drummers Tiana Pyer-Pereira ’07 and Vanessa Wells ’08, cellist Anne Fredrickson ’07 and pianist Bizzy Hemphill ’08.

Each instrument heralds particular characters or events. The taiko drums represent Dionysus, the chorus and shocking moments in the play such as a death. The cello signals young Theban king Pentheus, played by Aaron Hollander ’07. “Pentheus is the picture of civility taken to its illogical extreme, so much so that he also becomes the picture of repression,” Hollander said.

Pentheus is furious when Dionysus and his Bacchai arrive to Thebes. But in order to defeat the Bacchai, he finds he must become a worshipper of Dionysus himself. Following Pentheus’ arc, “At first, the music is classical and restrained, but eventually it becomes more frenzied,” Fredrickson said. Finally, the piano marks the late entrance of Pentheus’ mother Agave, played by Rachel Sugar ‘08. Sugar also plays the blind prophet Tiresias, whose newfound libido is taken quite literally here when he, along with Pentheus’ grandfather Cadmus (Dwight Smith ’08) become enchanted by Dionysus.

Beneath the lust, gore and death, audiences may nonetheless find a kernel of insight in the play’s meditation on true human nature. Are we really that different from other animals? Are we really more rational?

Hollander feels the Dionysian philosophy is still applicable today. “I find it meaningful in the way it reconciles the spirit and the body, he said. "The Dionysian essence is the space between the two. I’ve been studying religion for many years, and this makes so much sense.”

« RETURN TO LIVING & ARTS

« PREV ARTICLE | NEXT ARTICLE »