Word: dionysus
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Director Thomas Babe has chosen to do the William Arrowsmith translation in modern dress, with Pentheus of Thebes looking something like a teenage Marshal Ky, and the god Dionysus a blond-haired cigarette-smoking James Dean. The first resemblance is most pointed; Babe interprets the autocratic, highly organized government of Thebes as a garrison--perhaps fascist--state, threatened by the earthly, irrational Dionysiac cult. The interpretation works in that Babe's production is exciting theatre, and in the end faithful to the original as well. Just the same there are points worth questioning...
Certainly Thebes is a violent, rational state; here the parallel with fascism seems valid. But where does such an interpretation leave Dionysus, whose orgiastic cult--according to Philip Vellacott, another translator of The Bacchac--offers "an escape from reason back to the simple joys of a mind and body surrendered to unity with Nature?" The Dionysiac escape is a far cry from democracy, one obvious alternative to fascism. Its closeness to nature and opposition to organized civilization are, in fact, as integral components of Nazism as the military order of Pentheus. The Dionysiac cult is the ancestor of the same...
...most part, Munger exploits them well. Most importantly, he keeps the show moving along at a brisk pace, crashing through gags that don't work until it comes to some that do. The plot is simple enough: Dionysus (Paul Cooper) want to resurrect a great poet to help Athens through a crisis. Accompanied by Xanthias, his slave (Walt Licht), he descends to Hades and presides over a debate between Aeschylus (John Allman) and Euripides (Tom Popovich). Aeschylus triumphs and returns to life, presumably to cure the city of its ills...
...missing contrast between Dionysus and Xanthias is resoundingly present between Aeschylus and Euripides. Allman's craggy, dignified Aeschylus plays off nicely against Popovich's sleek, shallow Euripides. Even though the debate sometimes bogs down, the philosopher and the quibbler are never confused as are the master and the servant...
...Leverett House of Winchester, to an unprecedented second term as president. Other chosen Monday are Jeremy Wright '68, business manager; Jesse Kornbluth '67, managing editor; John Allman '67, poetry editor; Stephen Kornbluth '67, prose editor; Francine Prose '68, art editor; Amy Johnson '67 secretary; and Peter Shaw '67 Dionysus...