Bacchae 2.1

Mike and I had the weekend to ourselves and spent an embarrassing amount of time fiddling with paper mache. Mike said "crafting" in a somewhat derogatory way, but noooo, we are  not crafting. We are creating ART (ha ha!). I will post some pics of what we are doing. I found information online on how to make eyes from Fimo clay. They turned out surprisingly well; though I need to practise a bit. I will do a write up about the paper mache creations. For documentation purposes, of course.

On Friday night we decided to see a play at UBC; Bacchae 2.1 by Charles Mee (based on the play by Euripides. Here's the write-up:

"Expect the unexpected from Charles Mee’s richly poetic creation The Bacchae 2.1. In addition to Euripides’ classic Greek tragedy, the script draws from German literary theorist Klaus Theweleit’s Male Fantasies, Valerie Solanas’ The S.C.U.M. Manifesto and Joan Nestle’s Lesbian Herstory Archives. All find their place in Euripides’ theatrical celebration of the god Dionysus, set in a world both ancient and modern. WARNING EXPLICIT CONTENT"

Sounded kind of interesting and the tickets were cheap and it's fun to go see a play. A couple of weeks ago we went to see a play at the Cultch; "All That Fall" by Samuel Beckett. It was very enjoyable and made us want to see more plays. Something I used to do many years ago in my student theatre days.

So we didn't quite know what to expect, despite the warning of explicit content. It was, well, quite unexpected. Very heavy dialogue and long, complicated soliloquies by the principal actors; Dionysus and Pentheus. It would be difficult for me to go into a long explanation. Children might read this. What was, I suppose, mildly shocking was the long lists of "pleasures" that the actors describe. And what goes on in the Dionysian colony of women. The language was full of explicit sexual fantasy and desire, straight, gay, lesbian etc. you name it, it was in there. I found myself glancing sideways at Mike, who was sitting on my left, and trying to make a kind of apology with my eyes for bringing him along to such a strange production. There were some moments when it was quite funny and even the fact of us sitting there and watching it on our 'night out' seemed a little strange. It wasn't that we were blushing, it was just, well, strange.

There were audience members sitting in the row behind us and we caught snatches of their conversation; obviously two older couples getting together for dinner and theatre. (When I say 'older'...older than us). During the play we heard one man behind us whisper in disbelieve as a character described some male fantasy, "He's sick, that guy". We had to stifle a chuckle. At the end of the play, the same man remained in his seat and was shaking his head saying, "That was disgusting, disgusting!" A woman in their group felt the need to vindicate herself, "Well, I can't take the blame for this one, " she said.

That said it was well acted and all the young cast did a great job and carried along the heavy script which was a little didactic, as Mike mentioned, because he uses words like "didactic". But it did feel like we were supposed garner some moral instruction from the play. I don't think we did. But it was a bit different from the usual and that made for an interesting evening. It took me back to my student days when me, and my fellow Theatre Arts peers would take ourselves (and theatre) incredibly seriously. We worked earnestly on experimental theatre. We even created a play, "The Cry of the Nerve"...which was an experimental ramble about a man going mad (of course!) and feeling alienated and alone in a world in which he didn't feel he belonged. Production involved a sparse set, improvised 'lines', actors all in grey pajamas, masks on sticks, the sound effect of a loud foetal heart beat, and all bathed in red light. I think we used a bit of scaffolding as well. Strangely enough, we didn't sell many tickets and the play was lost and forgotten. For the best, I suppose.