BRATTLEBORO-Under the direction of Alex Hacker, the Vermont Theater Company (VTC) brings a jolt of life, relevance, and innovation to Euripides' tense tragedy.
The Bacchae, in an adaptation by Hacker himself, is "decidedly a translation," he said, "but in the spirit of Dionysus [the play's essential character], I took a few liberties to make it more performable and communicative in a way that stays true to the essence of the play."
A Greek tragedy from circa 405 BCE, The Bacchae "concerns the catastrophe that ensues when the King of Thebes imprisons Dionysus and attempts to suppress his cult. Full of striking scenes, frenzied emotion, and choral songs of great power and beauty, the play is a fine example of Euripides' ability to exploit Greek myth to probe human psychology," according to a description of the signature ancient Greek play provided by Simon & Schuster.
Hacker was a musician for many years before going to college where he studied classics - ancient Greek and Latin. He wended his way into theater, first in Baltimore where his version of The Bacchae was commissioned for a small theater group.
Having played "and toured with bands, going to shows and festivals, dancing in clubs, working in record stores," he then read Euripides' play.
He said he saw "the parallels between the music culture I was a part of and what we hear in this play about the followers of Dionysus - people who give up their traditional way of life, leave their homes behind and hit the road, strangers in strange places promoting an alternative lifestyle."
"All of that really hit me on a personal level, and I felt I had a unique perspective on that aspect of the play," he said.
Of its timeliness, Hacker said, "The Bacchae is the most relevant Greek tragedy for our time."
Despite the endearing qualities of the Greek god of wine, fertility, festivity, theater, and more, "there are evil aspects of Dionysus," Hacker said.
The message, Hacker said, is: "As appealing as Dionysus might be, you don't want him to have power over you. He is an actor. He is duplicitous. He can't be trusted. He is cruel."
The playwright/director says that it is "easy to see the parallels with our current political tragedy, but these currents spread through all of our culture in increasingly fast, easy, and dangerous ways, and it's getting more and more difficult to differentiate what is real, what's true."
Euripides was a star playwright in a time when plays were performed at lively, popular festivals in honor of Dionysus.
"From his opening monologue, we are made aware that Dionysus is an actor, and there are many meta-theatrical moments in the text that I wanted to make sure came through in my translation," Hacker said. "I wanted the production to be a celebration of the theatrical and musical aspects of Dionysus."
The end game of a Greek tragedy is catharsis, the purging of strong or repressed emotion. Will VTC audiences experience that?
"I hope so," Hacker said, "because I think we as a culture need it."
"I think it is perhaps unique to live performance and not the culture of screens," he continued. "I certainly experience catharsis seeing live theater and music, preferably in an intimate setting where real communication can take place between performer and audience. That is why I broke the fourth wall in this production and encouraged the actors to speak directly to the audience."
The audience, Hacker said, almost becomes the body of Theban citizens; there's little distance between them and the actors in the central playing area. The chorus, a classic element in a Greek tragedy, is six actors strong in this production and becomes the intermediary.
At a recent rehearsal, chorus actor Tosha Tillman spoke of the tight, dynamic nature of the chorus Hacker created.
"We curated the lines for the characters that we were envisioning because we're both individuals and a collective," she said. "We each have our own character, but we are definitely one nebulous cell. We recorded the lines, and then we built on that, and Alex then started integrating the movement and the other actors."
Robin Fitzgerald, who plays the god Dionysus, came to the area via Bennington College, and now serves as an AmeriCorps member at the Rich Earth Institute.
Of the play's relevance and the role of Dionysus, Fitzgerald said, "He is very self-absorbed and on his own kind of mission."
"Dionysus is very much grounded in extreme ideals of liberation," they continued. "Freedom, beauty, art, all these wonderful things that, with oversaturation, can lead to really destructive tendencies, lack of moderation, I guess. And so his inability to see beyond that and take into account the human aspect of overdosing it away on these things - it's quite timely."
Assistant Director Casey Parles added: "There's a lot of relevance when looking at [prevalent concerns such as] white supremacy. We're looking at the patriarchy, we're looking at how the government is involved in our everyday lives, and then we're also looking at substances, and at cults.
"Oppression plays a part in control and manipulation of people, and also too much of something can end up not being so good, especially when you use a minority or an oppressed class as a scapegoat. And the play examines excess in various ways with substances, in power dynamics, with queerness."
A lifelong theater person, Parles added, "I think it's really been a cool thing to be able to also discuss that with people in the cast [and] with the writer and to have a lot of queer folks in our cast to be able to have other insights from people who have experiences that are relatable."
John Marinelli, who plays Pentheus, King of Thebes, studied theater at Marlboro College. Of the play's timeliness, he said, "Theater is always important, I think, but no time more so than now."
Pentheus, he said, "is very clearly an authoritarian symbol. But in every character I portray, I try to find the humanity. You know, what are they actually like day to day? What are they grappling with?"
The king has a real problem, Marinelli said: "Half the population has left the city. There's chaos. And he's a young guy. He's very comfortable in power, so I think that's where his truth lies."
He is "doing the best he can with what he knows," Marinelli added. He's in his first stages of leadership, which is very "command and control" in style.
He believes that's what a leader is and should do. He's stuck in that mindset; he's drunk with power and wants to cling to that - a classic tragic flaw.
The cast also includes: Jessica Iris, Avery Thompson, Tracy Berchi, Chris Dubis, and Mimi Fang as the other Bacchae (the chorus); Keira Zagaeski as Agave; Geof Dolman as Cadmus; Kira Storm as Tiresias; Cyndi Cain as the aide-de-camp, Kay Beckett and Thomas Ely as the Messengers; and Alex Lacey as First Officer.
The Vermont Theatre Company production is at ADA-compliant 118 Elliot in Brattleboro, on Friday and Saturday, March 14 and 15, at 7 p.m., on Sunday, March 16 at 2 p.m., on Friday and Saturday, March 21 and 22, at 7 p.m., and on Sunday, March 23 at 2 p.m. Ticket prices are what a patron is inclined to pay, said producer Kay Becker: hero ($15), monarch ($20), or god ($30). They are available at vermonttheatrecompany.org. All 50 seats are arranged around the central playing area, one row deep. This production, which runs 2½ hours with intermission, includes flashing and strobe lights.
This Arts item by Annie Landenberger was written for The Commons.