EURIPIDES UPDATED: A 2,500-year-old tragedy by Euripides has been transformed into a play about the war in Iraq. “The Bacchae of Baghdad” recently played at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre (founded by poet W.B. Yeats) amidst the Samuel Beckett Centenary Festival celebrating the famous Irish writer. The play is an updated version of Euripides “The Bacchae” set in occupied Iraq. Here’s a short description by Hadani Ditmars writing in the San Francisco Chronicle: “The play drew some interesting parallels between fifth century B.C. and the present day. Pentheus, ruler of Thebes, is portrayed as an uptight Evangelical American military commander in Baghdad's Green Zone. His ordered, Apollonian extremism is countered by the manic, anarchic energy of Dionysus -- whose cult some ancient Greeks saw as hailing from the "barbaric" orient -- and who, in the play assumes the guise of an insurgent. While the play does not quite work literally (Dionysus travels through Baghdad with his band of Bacchae more like some Rastafarian punk than an Islamist) it manages to capture the emotional reality of Iraq. The more Dionysus is punished (he is led manacled in an orange jumpsuit to his jail cell) the more his followers retaliate -- ending with the violent dismemberment of Pentheus, the fallen tragic hero who has been felled by his own hubris.” Playwright was the Abbey Theatre’s Conall Morrison.
- posted by Michael Shay @ 3:35 PM