Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 26 June 2008

Paola Dionisotti & The Bacchae

EURIPIDES’ ancient tragedy The Bacchae is rich material for a contemporary adaptation. Sadly this new version by David Grieg for the National Theatre of Scotland (directed by John Tiffany, whose credits include Black Watch) fails to engage with the complexity of its themes.

With Alan Cumming as Dionysus and Cal MacAninch as Pentheus, this could have been a mind-blowing production in the hands of a different writer. Glammed up, playing for cheap laughs and populated by tedious and irrelevant musical numbers by composer Tim Sutton, this National Theatre of Scotland production was disappointing.

A musical interpretation of The Bacchae could have really pushed boundaries. Instead the style is reminiscent of every “Xfactor” contestant, American musical and Gospel style R&B radio tune. Grieg’s version tries hard to entertain and dumbs down the entire production in the process. The Bacchae themselves, a collective energy to be reckoned with, are tamed by the musical style and unconvincing choreography.

Strong, adaptable stage design by Miriam Buether, pyrotechnics and lighting design by Colin Grenfell are clever, but don’t make up for the weaknesses in the overall interpretation.

Alan Cumming as the charismatic god and Cal MacAninch as the upright civic leader are both excellent, but neither are given the opportunity to really explore the ambiguity and conflict at the heart of the original story or myth. The only God in the Greek pantheon whose parents were not both divine, Dionysus is a highly ambivalent and complex figure. The play opens with his return to Thebes to take revenge on those who have shunned his mother Semele, denied him as a God and a son of Zeus.

Dionysus is cast as an outsider but equally he belongs to Thebes and the civilization it represents as the site of his birth. As “foreigner”, divine being and a symbol of base human instinct, the character has potentially much to say to a modern audience.

Demonisation of “the other” and the ensuing consequences have personal and global implications. The destruction of Thebes occurs because Dionysus is not acknowledged: “What is it to be divine?” asks Cadmus (Ewan Hooper) towards the end of the play; he answers the question by placing his hand on a bag of bloody human remains.

As an individual war of attrition between our senses and our intellect, or on the scale of an entire western civilization at war with forces branded like bacchanalian rites as barbaric, crude or obscene, The Bacchae is an enduring play. I find it disappointing that such a hyped contemporary production fails to engage with its most resonant themes as part of its overall design. Literal fire and blood on stage is not nearly as impressive as fire and blood within, conveyed by imaginative interpretation of the text and actually felt by the audience.

As God of Wine and the Theatre Dionysus is duplicitous and open to interpretation. He is both masculine and feminine, the purity of ecstasy, instinct and sensuousness, part mortal, part god. This production presents Dionysus like a high camp panto dame, certainly entertaining on one level, but ultimately limiting the potential scope of the character and the capabilities of the actor.

“Gods don’t rage like this…it’s too human”, should be a clue, not for two dimensions but infinitely more. This production sanitises the divine and human elements of the play by dressing it as easy entertainment. In essence it reduces Euripides mighty “Scream” to a mere whisper.

(The Bacchae is at Eden Court until 28 June).

© Georgina Coburn, 2008

Links

• National Thatre of Scotland
• Eden Court Theatre