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Euripides' Bacchae in New Zealand Dress*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 May 2015
Extract
Euripides' Bacchae is a play which has intrigued, disturbed and challenged many spectators, readers, theatre practitioners and interpreters. Its spectacular and gruesome aspects in particular have also given rise over the years to notable anecdotes, such as that recorded by Plutarch (Crassus 33) to the effect mat the Roman general's severed head was carried by the Agave actor in a performance of the play at the Parthian court in 53 BC. At times, moreover, arguably on account of such a graphic portrayal of the elemental and destructive forces unleashed by the Dionysus principle, it has been regarded as ‘too hot to handle’. Thus, for example, as Karelisa Hartigan points out, it appears to have made no appearance on the American commercial stage during the first 60 years of the twentieth century.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2007
Footnotes
*
This article is a radically revised version of a paper given at ASCS 28 in Newcastle, NSW, on 6 February 2007. I have greatly benefited from the discussion there, and am also most grateful to Michael Ewens and Simon Penis for broadening my knowledge of Bacchae-type plays written in the 1960s and early 1970s. The advice of two anonymous readers has also proved most beneficial.
References
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