There is a question that might be formulated
in a metaphorical and Nietzschean language, as follows:
Is it possible, even if only within the confines of a play,
for Dionysus to prevail completely and unconditionally over Apollo?

J.G.

On a rare Epidaurian occasion, at the very site where music and drama have resonated across millennia, The Bacchae, under the direction of the distinguished Bulgarian auteur Javor Gardev, come alive at the ancient theatre in a staging that unsettles the perennial contest between two primal forces: the radiant clarity of Apollo and the chaotic seduction of Dionysus. The music score is composed and performed live on stage by the internationally acclaimed British ensemble The Tiger Lillies, who further amplify the dramatic action in their guise as shadowy troubadours – figures elicited from the very heart of the Dionysian cosmos. From this convergence of Organisations, bodies, and live music emerges a performance that jolts the certainties of reason to their core.

In Gardev’s The Bacchae, a critical question takes centre stage: how much destabilisation can a society endure? How does the collective body metabolise an event – mentally, psychologically, and politically – before it hardens into trauma? The tragedy becomes a reckoning with the limits of orderliness, testing the resilience of both rules and institutions alike. In Euripides’ vision, Dionysian ecstasy is no carefree celebration; it is a trial for civilisation itself, pushing to extremes our obsession with control, custom, law, and self-image.

As the director himself stresses, “The Bacchae ventures further than any other tragedy into the territory of irrational impulse and madness. So far, indeed, that it becomes perilous even for its audience, who are invited to confront their innermost fears and most potent fears.”

The atavistic dread of civilisation’s collapse does not reside solely in the dramatis personae; it nests within the collective unconscious, where communities forge myths to shield themselves. From this premise, an unsettling parallel emerges with the experience of Balkan nationalisms, in which bigotry – a politicised fear of the Other – transforms difference into a threat, something to be repelled, contained, or forcibly assimilated. Therefore, the tragedy is founded upon the delusion and folly of believing that whatever cannot be contained within language and law may simply be banished. Yet, when humanity denies its murky kinship with the irrational, it does not eradicate it; it drives it into cavernous depths, from which it almost always returns, more feral than before.

Συντελεστές

  • Direction Javor Gardev
  • Adaptation Ioanna Remediaki, Javor Gardev
  • Music Martyn Jaques
  • Live music The Tiger Lillies (Martyn Jaques, Adrian Stout, Budi Butenop)
  • Set design Nikola Toromanov
  • Costume design Ilenia Douladiri
  • Choreography Uršula Teržan
  • Lighting design Stella Kaltsou
  • Translation from Ancient Greek Dorotea Tabakova
  • Dramaturgical analysis Ioanna Remediaki, Pavlina Dublekova
  • Assistant to the director Liuba Todorova
  • Stage manager Bogdan Dimitrov
  • Communications – Press Office Rita Sissiou
  • Social media Apopsi, Dimitris Kontogiannis
  • Cast Leonid Yovchev Dionysus, Samuel Finzi Tiresias, Alexandros Mylonas Cadmus, Loukia Michalopoulou Agave, Michail Tabakakis Pentheus, Ivan Youroukov Messenger, Martin Dimitrov Second Messenger, Ivan Nikolov Servant
  • Bacchae Chorus Kremena Slavcheva, Xenia Grammatikou, Danae Stamatopoulou, Alexandra Gkaitatzi, Nadya Keranova, Nefeli Anthopoulou, Eleni Thymiopoulou, Alexandra Svilenova, Angeliki Kintoni, Zoe Efthymiou, Efthimia Daniilidou, Polyxeni Spyropoulou
  • Co-production Ivan Vazov National Theatre – Athens Epidaurus Festival
  • In collaboration with National Theatre of Northern Greece