La MaMa, in association with The Faux-Real Theatre, presents

THE BACCHAE

 (This God Likes to Party!)

 

The Greek God Dionysus demanded ecstatic revels of his worshippers, and Faux-Real’s Bacchae won’t let him down.  Filled with music, dancing, masks and breaches of nearly every description, Faux-Real’s avant-garde spectacle, is, in effect, a very loyal rendition of the 5th century BC tragedy by Euripides. A feast for the senses, “The Bacchae” is raucous and metaphysical, challenging and celebratory… a communal party that ends with the ruler of Thebes getting really shredded.

 

Directed by Faux-Real Artistic Director Mark Greenfield, “The Bacchae” features masks by Lynda White, musical direction by Tony Naumovski, and costumes by Irina Gets, set design by John Milano, and lighting design by Alejandro Fajardo. THE BACCHAE was performed at New York's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in March of 2016.

 

In “The Bacchae,” the celebrated, gender-bending and mercurial party god Dionysus cavorts with his ecstatic followers, the girl-group known as The Bacchae, only to be challenged by the villainous secularist Pentheus. Overflowing with worship of all kinds (drunken goat dances anyone?) some will recognize the earliest glimmers of liberation theology… others may smell the first whiff of religious fundamentalism, and the end of the party. What, the party’s over????

 
 

The show’s gender-fluid, multi-ethnic, and multi-generational cast of 19 included: PJ Adzima, Andrew Bryce, Zora Iman Crews, Zelda Gay, Jeremy X. Halpern, Joy Kelly, Isabelle Kenet, Isi Laborde, Jy Murphy, Tony Naumovski, Emma Orme, Madeline Adelle Phillips, Fiona Robberson, Aaron Scott, Dorian Shorts, Sarah Traisman, Henry Walker, Annie-Sage Whitehurst