A new era dawns at the National Theatre – and with it comes quite the statement of intent. Indhu Rubasingham, the recently appointed artistic director, is the first non-male, non-white incumbent of the office and her first production as director seems to want to underline these points in marked fashion.
This modern spin on the ancient Greek tragedy is diverse of casting, demotic of speech and decidedly female-slanted and while it pulses with a febrile energy, it unhelpfully turns its protagonists into something of a shouty rabble.
Euripides’s play is notable for the fact that its chorus is foregrounded in the very title, which signifies female celebrants of the hedonistic god Dionysus, or Bacchus. Debut playwright Nima Taleghani (known as an actor for his role as Mr Farouk in Heartstopper) goes several steps further than this by giving this group of women, here led by Clare Perkins’s earthy Vida, individual names and identities.
Sexually liberal and fearsomely straight talking, they travel the globe to right the wrongs of patriarchal regimes and have now landed in Thebes, whose autocratic leader Pentheus (James McArdle) has labelled them a “terrorist organisation”.
Sexually liberal and formidably straight talking, the chorus take centre stage (Photo: Marc Brenner)There are myriad mentions of current geopolitical trends and buzzwords, not least the way the Bacchae refer to themselves as “asylum seekers” and Pentheus hurls the word “immigrant” as a term of abuse. However these modern credentials come to feel needlessly overegged as the narrative unfolds and Dionysus himself (Ukweli Roach), bouncing with Tigger-like energy in a sparkly gold suit and breastplate, vows to wreak revenge on his cousin Pentheus.
square ARTS I wanted to like The Land of the Living more than I did
Read More
The first image we see on the National’s most imposing stage, the Olivier, is a huge puppet head of a white horse, suspended high and dripping with blood. There’s fake news to start: Pentheus’s mother Agave (Sharon Small) is dead. Yet she is not; she has instead been bewitched into joining the Bacchae in the mountains and soon enough she is gnawing at raw meat, her jaws bloodstained, and carrying a dismembered arm about with her.
Meanwhile McArdle, beautifully portraying a tough man with mummy issues, progresses to wearing a glamorous evening gown and bodice and sitting on a branch suspended high above the action.
Kate Prince’s stomping choreography adds a stirring momentum to proceedings, even though it becomes increasingly hard to fathom what all this actually amounts to. The surfeit of sexually provocative language also begins to feel wearisome. The ending is not something that Euripides would have recognised and the evening culminates with a literal statement of intent from the chorus of women about the National’s welcoming of everyone.
A strong-ish start, and it will be fascinating to see where Rubasingham takes things from here.
To 1 November (020 3989 5455, www.nationaltheatre.org.uk)
Hence then, the article about bacchae is feminist sexually provocative and too shouty was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Bacchae is feminist, sexually provocative – and too shouty )
Also on site :
- Trump selling seats on Gaza ‘Board of Peace’ for $1bn
- Thousands rally in Serbia as students continue fight against corruption
- Today’s NYT ‘Strands’ Hints, Spangram and Answers for Sunday, January 18, 2026