''The Bacchae'' is an
independent film adaptation of
Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...
'
play
Play most commonly refers to:
* Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment
* Play (theatre), a work of drama
Play may refer also to:
Computers and technology
* Google Play, a digital content service
* Play Framework, a Java framework
* P ...
''
The Bacchae
''The Bacchae'' (; grc-gre, Βάκχαι, ''Bakchai''; also known as ''The Bacchantes'' ) is an ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides during his final years in Macedonia, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. ...
'', produced by
Lorenda Starfelt
Lorenda Starfelt (January 11, 1955 – March 16, 2011) was an independent film producer, as well as a committed political activist and blogger who notably dug up president Barack Obama's birth announcement in an August 1961 edition of ''The Ho ...
and John Morrissey, and directed by
Brad Mays
Brad Mays (born May 30, 1955) is an independent filmmaker and stage director, living and working in Los Angeles, California.
Background and education
Mays was raised in the Edinburg section of West Windsor Township, New Jersey, attending the ...
.
Production
''The Bacchae'' was shot in the autumn of 2000, three years after director Brad Mays' highly successful, award-nominated theatrical production of Euripides' play at the Complex in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
. Originally conceived on a larger scale than what eventually went into production, the film suffered tremendously from budget cuts and artistic differences, most particularly between the director and co-producer John Morrissey (
American History X
''American History X'' is a 1998 American crime drama film directed by Tony Kaye and written by David McKenna. The film stars Edward Norton and Edward Furlong as two brothers from Los Angeles who are involved in the white power skinhead and n ...
).
Story
Having established his divinity in eastern lands,
Dionysus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Roma ...
- the god of wine - returns to Thebes, land of his birth as well as his mortal mother Semele's horrible and shameful death. Angered over his homeland's refusal to acknowledge his divine nature, the son of
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...
intends to establish the worship which he insists is now his due.
Having put a spell on all the local women, a great celebration of dance and wine takes place in the nearby
Glens of Cithaeron, attended even by the former king
Cadmus and blind prophet
Teiresias
In Greek mythology, Tiresias (; grc, Τειρεσίας, Teiresías) was a blind prophet of Apollo in Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. He was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph ...
. When word of this outlandishness reaches
Pentheus, the young and rational King of Thebes, he orders the immediate arrest of the blonde stranger responsible for the mayhem. Unaware that his strange prisoner is a god, Pentheus refuses to even consider the possibility that Bacchic worship has a place in the modern world.
Unable to endure such an affront, the god Dionysus casts a spell over the young king and leads him into the mountains, where he is ultimately torn limb from limb by the ecstatic worshippers, whose number now includes Pentheus' own mother, Agave.
Background
![Bacchae pentheus in drag](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Bacchae_pentheus_in_drag.jpg)
Director Brad Mays' 1997 stage production of
The Bacchae
''The Bacchae'' (; grc-gre, Βάκχαι, ''Bakchai''; also known as ''The Bacchantes'' ) is an ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides during his final years in Macedonia, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. ...
had been a surprise hit in Los Angeles, drawing large audiences and earning excellent reviews. It was ultimately nominated for three
LA Weekly Theatre Awards, for ''Production Design,'' ''Original Musical Score,'' and ''Direction''. Considered particularly noteworthy was the production's use of ample though non-exploitive full-frontal nudity, most particularly in scenes portraying ritualized pagan worship and, ultimately, the violent ritual killing of the character Pentheus, king of Thebes. A major contributing factor in the production's effectiveness was the movement scoring by choreographer
Kim Weild, a practitioner of the
Suzuki method of dance/movement. In the months which followed the production's closing, its creators began to ponder the feasibility of an independently produced film version. Several of the stage production's cast were invited to re-create their roles for the film which, according to Eric Grode in an article written for the entertainment industry publication ''Playbill,'' was also to include British actors
Brian Blessed
Brian Blessed (; born 9 October 1936) is an English actor, presenter, writer and mountaineer.
Blessed is known for portraying PC "Fancy" Smith in ''Z-Cars'', Augustus in the 1976 BBC television production of '' I, Claudius'', King Richard I ...
and
Alan Bates. Citing audience "fist fights" over theatre tickets for the stage production, Grode anticipated an exciting, hard-hitting contemporary film version, "as edgy as any Tarantino knock-off," promising "nudity, gore and rock music galore." Unfortunately, the notion of a contemporary film adaptation of a 2,500-year-old play was eventually seen as impossibly risky, and much of the committed funding was ultimately withdrawn. A stripped-down version of the script was shot and edited, with decidedly uneven results. Director Mays and producer Starfelt decided to let the film go and, despite intense interest and numerous rumors to the contrary, have yet to seek distribution.
In 2009, director Brad Mays, along with
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
winner
Wole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (Yoruba: ''Akínwándé Olúwọlé Babátúndé Ṣóyíinká''; born 13 July 1934), known as Wole Soyinka (), is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded t ...
, stage director
Richard Schechner
Richard Schechner is University Professor Emeritus at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, and editor of ''TDR: The Drama Review''.
Biography
Richard Schechner received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University in 1956, a ...
, and actor
Alan Cumming was invited to discuss Euripides' ''The Bacchae'' as part of a web series ''Invitation to World Literature,'' which officially launched on
Annenberg Media
The Annenberg Foundation is a family foundation that provides funding and support to non-profit organizations in the United States and around the world. Some of the Foundation's core initiatives are the Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcast ...
's educational website in September, 2010. The series, produced by Annie Wong for WGBH Boston, also began airing nationally on PBS in October, 2010. Clips from Mays' film were heavily used in the program.
Related articles and reviews
* Critic
Neal Weaver discusses onstage nudity
* "Primal Time - Euripides Revisited" - Article by Steven Leigh Morris, LA Weekly, July 11–17, 1987
* "Daring Bacchae Delves Into Modern Psyche" - Phillip Brandes, Los Angeles Times, July 4, 1997
References
External links
*
* Video Clips fro
Brad Mays' independent film version of The Bacchae* Still Photos & Full Video Stream fro
*
Stratford Shakespeare Festival Background Book 2008 include
links for Brad Mays' production of ''Trojan Women''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baccahe
2002 films
Films based on works by Euripides
Films based on classical mythology
Films directed by Brad Mays
Works based on The Bacchae
2000s English-language films