(Re)inventing Euripides’ Bacchae

Abstract

Even to contemplate the retranslating and re-presentation of Euripides’ Bacchae for a modern antipodean audience might seem to be an ambition at first blush as hybristic as Pentheus’ own tragic rejection of Dionysus and as fraught with as much danger and as many pitfalls. However, it is a given of people actively involved in the business of translation and direction that each succeeding generation — at the very least — requires a new and contextually appropriate approach to a dramatic classic in order to provide a meaningful reading; something more is needed than merely a respectful antiquarian revisiting of the work itself or of the approaches of earlier practitioners. This is not to say that one need not take notice of major productions and translations of the past; the new production is at the continuum’s leading edge, but it is necessarily informed by past achievements, both in terms of performance and of scholarly interpretation.