the bacchae

summer cabaret / garden, august 1-11, 2007


euripides’ play about religious fanaticism, moral conservatism, and dionysus, the god of sex, wine, and theatre.  environmentally staged with audience participation, improvisation and a variety of original songs.  collaborated with choreographer rebecca alaly to conceive of and create the entirely danced role of semele.  production determined by a city-wide vote between the bacchae, king lear and peer gynt -- audiences were then asked to select the venue (inside, outside, or both) and 2 liquids to be used in the production (out of milk, honey and wine).


photos: sarah scranton

 
 

CREDITS:

by euripides / translated by william arrowsmith / designed by: zane pihlstrom (sets), anya klepikov (costumes), ji-youn chang (lights), sarah pickett (composer & sound) / with: rebecca alaly (semele), eric bryant (pentheus), brian burns (cadmus), teresa avia lim (teiresias / agave), barret o’brien (dionysus), luke robertson (chorus leader) / choreographed by rebecca alaly / musical direction by sarah picket / directed by mike donahue

press


“there are slews of surprises that i won't reveal, but the biggest surprise if you ever had to endure dry, stiff, morose cocktail parties with classics professors... is how nasty and sleazy and fun and absolutely non-academic this sensational evening is.”

- christopher arnott, new haven advocate (full story)


“what makes this energetic production… so appealing is that it tells this grisly and timeless theme through original rockabilly songs, impressive acrobatics, marx brothers gender-bending slapstick, and buckets of honey and wine, drunk, poured, and bathed in.”

-allan appel, new haven independent (full story)


“recalibrating the yale cabaret”

-christopher arnott, new haven advocate (full story)

[ click here for video from the bacchae ]