“Do it because the scream demands”: Behind the Scenes with The Bacchae

It’s a bright, chilly Sunday afternoon and I’m sitting in the rehearsal room for WUD’s newest production: The Bacchae. Euripides’ swan song, originally performed posthumously after his death, is a play that was made to rattle an audience. It’s amoral, it’s cynical, it’s dialectal, with the central demigod Dionysius seducing characters into his ecstasy of loyal, dancing followers. Surprisingly, for a story set during high fevered midnights of rapture and butchery, everybody in the rehearsal room was cool and considered. Director Dylan Oates and Assistant Director Felix Alder are talking about the day’s schedule whilst the cast are excited over the introduction of props, namely the Bacchaic spears, that are key to this version. The production ensemble is expansive, from freshers who have done amateur and professional theatre before, to prod teams for whom it is their first or last show at the university.

Inspiration came from a unique place. A lecture on The Bacchae in the European Theatre module that was framed around The Rocky Horror Picture Show

The vision for the show is a 70s dreamscape. Bowie and Studio 54, all crashing into a thrilling, contemporary soundtrack. Though there’s no sound in this rehearsal, the cast are ready and willing to start using the spears, beginning with a chemistry exercise to get used to the new props. Inspiration came from a unique place. A lecture on The Bacchae in the European Theatre module that was framed around The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I doubt there will be any full musical numbers. Rather it’s a certain kind of scale, of tone. A kinetic expanse of feeling that connects the cult musical and the classical play. That connection is a better hook than most can gather for plays written in 405 BC. Dylan explains that they are using David Greig’s 2007 version, precisely because of its vibrancy of language and Greig’s lucid writing provides directors and actors with enough space to imagine and create something new. He hopes to get the playwright to come see this production, explaining how they got in contact to make sure creative edits and gender-blind casting were approved.

I recognised then, even in an intimate and truncated rehearsal form, a real power in the actors and in this production

After a few introductory exercises, the rehearsal properly begins. It’s a clean-up, watching over scenes from the previous day and seeing what can be polished and refined. The scenes in question are fairly tricky, with synchronised dialogue and manic rising emotions for the collective of actors who make up the Bacchae chorus. Producer Neera Cheung notes how it’s good to allow for things not to go exactly as planned, that it adds the free-flowing joy that the wild commune represents. The cast are attentive to this idea, suggesting constructive ideas and running with it. Cast member Olly Cornish tells of the “Yes And” approach given to his role of Dionysius, that there is a creative space for him to invent and evolve what his version of the character is. ‘Stay loose’ seems to be the motto. Watching the first few runs of the scene, the openness that the actors create is contagious. They make a rehearsed rhythm, paying attention to pauses and stops. Poetic lines like “Burst with redberries. Burst with bright flowers” are given their proper dues, all the while the rhythm is maintained. Cast members Mira Baldwin and Izzy Marzolini suggest a synergy is created, the Bacchae is an “entranced entity” which feeds off its own joy and self-love. Naturally then, a cast should follow a similar example. Izzy remarks, speaking of the countercultural aesthetic, “It’s what life should be,” and compares the show to a previous WUDs production; 1984. If that play focused on people’s rejection of their own humanity, the desire to force power over others, The Bacchae is a celebration of everything in our lives. The final scene I see rehearsed is another paradise communion. This notion of “The Scream” keeps being said by the Bacchae. They shout out to Thebes: “Bring the scream”, “Stand quiet in front of your houses”, “Do it because the scream demands”. I recognised then, even in an intimate and truncated rehearsal form, a real power in the actors and in this production.

Olly Cornish as Dionysus

The Bacchae will be one of those great theatrical ‘experiences, that nobody should miss

A life-long fan of The Bacchae, the German playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht, once pondered how the theatre could be turned “from a house of illusions into a house of experiences.” It looks like The Bacchae will be one of those great theatrical ‘experiences, that nobody should miss.