Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Director Jillian Keiley’s intoxicating production of Euripides’ Bakkhai, in a new version by Canadian poet Anne Carson, starts previews today at the Tom Patterson Theatre.
When the play begins, the demi-god Dionysos has arrived in Thebes in human form with vengeance in his heart. Derided as an imposter by the city’s ruler, King Pentheus, this charismatic stranger has induced madness in the Theban women, who have run off to join his cult of female followers, the Bakkhai. News of their frenzied rioting prompts Pentheus to declare war on the Bakkhai – who include his own mother, Agave – only to be lured by Dionysos toward a fate of the starkest horror.
“These Bakkhic worshippers have burst their way out of a brutal patriarchy to discover sexual liberation and freedom for the first time,” says Ms Keiley. “Their sexual awakening is not bound by fear and shame. It is in service to achieving a higher spiritual, tantric worship of the god of ecstasy. The king is punished for denying the existence of the god Dionysos, not allowing the women worshippers the freedom to practise their sensuous rites – and worse, making sure he steals his own pleasure from the women’s bodies first.”
“This story, as old as western civilization, addresses perhaps the most fundamental division within each and every one of us: the division between the rational and the irrational,” says Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino. “And it reminds us not to underestimate the latter. Since the Enlightenment of the 18th century, we’ve been trying to persuade ourselves of the superior power of reason. But one of the lessons we’re learning right now, as our world starts surprising and dismaying us at every turn, is that we’ve underestimated our own unpredictability.”
The cast features Mac Fyfe as Dionysos and Lucy Peacock as Agave, with Graham Abbey as Tieresias and Gordon S. Miller as Pentheus.
The creative team includes Designer Shawn Kerwin, Lighting Designer Cimmeron Meyer, Composer Veda Hille, Sound Designer Don Ellis, Music Director Shelley Hanson, Fight Director John Stead and Intimacy Choreographer Tonia Sina.
Bakkhai officially opens on Friday, June 16, and runs until September 23.
Production support is generously provided by M.E.H. Foundation.
Corporate sponsor for the 2017 season of the Tom Patterson Theatre is BMO Financial Group.
Support for the 2017 season of the Tom Patterson Theatre is generously provided by Richard Rooney & Laura Dinner.
Bakkhai Forum highlights
The Forum is a series of events, such as exclusive showcases, guest speakers, special meals, music and family fun, that offer theatregoers a unique opportunity to delve deeper into the ideas and issues raised by the 2017 playbill. Themes related to Bakkhai will be explored through several Forum events, including:
Wednesday, June 28
Margaret Jane Kidnie moderates a discussion with the Honourable Sheila Copps, former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, and other remarkable women comparing how the different genders occupy space in the world.
Wednesday, July 19
Ann-Marie MacDonald and Sheeren El Feki discuss how the female voice and perspective in literature have shifted in diverse social and cultural contexts and what that shift means to women in society.
• Ideas at Stratford: The Gender Trap
Saturday, July 29
How does gender drive identity? Paul Kennedy moderates a discussion with United Church minister and politician Cheri DiNovo; Rinaldo Walcott, Director of the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto; and artist and activist Syrus Marcus Ware.
The Stratford Festival’s 2017 season runs until October 29, featuring Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Timon of Athens, Guys and Dolls, HMS Pinafore, Treasure Island, The School for Scandal, The Changeling, Bakkhai, Tartuffe, The Madwoman of Chaillot, The Komagata Maru Incident, The Virgin Trial and The Breathing Hole. For tickets and more information, visit stratfordfestival.ca or call 1.800.567.1600.
Photo: Lucy Peacock as Agave. ©2016 Lynda Churilla.
2017-05-27
Stratford: Euripides' tragedy "Bakkhai" begins previews today