The New York Euripides Summer Festival presents Bacchae beginning June 26 and running through June 30 at three popular venues. The festival’s closing season coincides with American Thymele Theatre’s 30-year span of offering quality Greek theater to all audiences free of charge. Award-winning director Lorca Peress directs a cast of 16 headed by veteran actor Stephen Diacrussi.
Widely considered Euripides’ magnum opus, Bacchae centers on Dionysus, god of wine and revelry, son of Zeus, and Semele, a mortal woman of Thebes. Dionysus arrives in Thebes angered at the people of the city for denying his worship. He sends them to the forest in fits of madness where they become Bacchants, observing his frenzied rituals. Dionysus is furious with his cousin Pentheus, ruler of Thebes, who refuses to accept his divinity. Ignoring the advice of Cadmus, their paternal forebear, and the blind prophet Tiresias, Pentheus seeks to destroy Dionysus. Now disguised as a mortal, Dionysus cleverly appeals to Pentheus’ curiosity, convincing him to dress as a woman and go to the forest where the Bacchants, along with his mother Agave, threaten a shocking demise.
American Thymele Theatre was founded in 1993 with the mission of preserving and publicizing Greek culture in America by producing timeless Greek-themed plays made accessible to the public at no cost. ATT presented rarely produced Greek-themed plays such as Barefoot in Athens, Kouros, and The Grocer’s Daughter, performed in New York and at venues across the U.S. among other rarities to American audiences. ATT has held New York Euripides Summer Festival since 2009, producing critically acclaimed productions of Rhesus, Alcestis, Medea, and many others at the former East River Park Amphitheater and numerous off-Broadway venues. During the pandemic, it offered the pioneering, digital productions of Helen, Electra, Orestes, and Ion. This production of Bacchae marks the completion of NYESF’s goal of producing all of Euripides’ extant plays in chronological order.
Read more at thenationalherald.com
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations, Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons License: CC-BY-SA Copyright: Beyond My Ken
