The Bacchae presented by WSC Avant Bard at Artisphere

The Bacchae

Artisphere
1101 Wilson Blvd Arlington

We close the season with another rep, leading off with The Bacchae of Euripides (it’s been too long since we produced one of the great Greek plays) as we welcome back director Steven Scott Mazzola, who brought our productions of The Royal Hunt of the Sun and In the Summer House to the stage. The Bacchae will be paired with The Tooth of Crime, a play from the neglected, but compelling, early work of Sam Shepard, and one of the plays that sealed his reputation as a strikingly original and influential voice in American theatre. Frequent WSC actor and director Kathleen Akerley (whose work for us off-stage includes our productions of Macbett and Jumpers), the artistic director of Longacre Lea Productions, will direct our production.

Presented by WSC Avant Bard

Thru - Jul 1, 2012

Show Type: Drama

Running Time: 1 hour 30 mins with no intermission

www.wscavantbard.org

The Bacchae Reviews

Average Rating based on 5 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Washington Post - Recommended

"... The musical “Hair” turns out to be a good way to think about the largely wonderful staging of “The Bacchae,” now at WSC Avant Bard’s intimate Artisphere home in Arlington. Shaggy actors scamper and sway while a live band plays catchy tunes. The dancing is full of abandon and sensuality, celebrating heaven-sent bliss. It’s practically a tribal love-rock musical."

- Nelson Pressley

Washington City Paper - Recommended

"... Jeremy Pace’s languorously seductive Dionysus is a fine foil for Elliott Kashner’s frat boy of a Pentheus, both men preening like movie stars and playing to the crowd. And Steven Scott Mazzola’s staging for WSC Avant Bard surrounds them with startling images at Artisphere: a chorus cavorting as the floor beneath them lights up with twinkling stars; severed limbs coalescing into the huge golden visage of a god. Throbbingly catchy music by Mariano Vales helps the director turn this Bacchae into tragedy of an oddly vibrant, antic sort–almost an ancient Greek Godspell–so brimming with song and so powered by Aysha Upchurch’s floor-pounding choreography that for much of its length it seems disinterested in the horrors of its plot."

- Bob Mondello

ShowBizRadio - Highly Recommended

"... The chorus is literally the central element of the Director Steven Scott Mazzloa’s well-conceived production, The main set unit is a long, low, relatively narrow rectangular platform, placed between two parallel banks of seats. For the most part, the chorus occupies the platform, reacting vividly to the words and actions of the named characters, who are typically blocked at one end or the other of the rectangle or circle its periphery. A particularly nice touch is the use of several chorus members as musicians to accompany the singing. The musicians are themselves singers and actors who blend into the chorus on occasions when they are not playing their instruments. At times, the chorus provides the percussion beat by slapping their bodies or the stage."

- Bob Ashby

DCTheatreScene - Recommended

What would a religion which celebrated lust, music, dancing, and the drinking of wine be like? Hah! Need I even ask! The party would last until we were asked to leave the Eurozone, I suppose. Still – it would be hard to go.

- Tim Treanor

DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended

"... WSC Avant Bard’s The Bacchae is exciting and filled with powerful performances from an outstanding cast. Don’t miss it!"

- Pat Davis