Bacchae (Solo Version)

Dionysus, god of wine and ecstasy, returns to Thebes disguised as a mortal priest. His mission: to punish the royal family who denied his existence, who whispered that his mother Semele was a liar and her child a bastard. He drives the women of Thebes mad with divine frenzy, sending them dancing on the mountain in rituals that shatter the boundaries between human and god, reason and madness. Then he turns his attention to Pentheus, the young king who pridefully believes he can control what he does not understand. Pentheus agrees to dress as a woman, disguise as one of the bacchants, to spy on their rites. He is torn apart on the mountain, his own mother Agave believing she has killed a lion. She returns to Thebes carrying his head, triumphant. This is a tragedy about what happens when a civilization tries to bury the wild, the sacred, the feminine. Euripides offers no comfort, only the terrible beauty of divine vengeance and human blindness.