Elli Papakonstantinou makes the myth of Dionysos her own, giving us a queer version of the play where the question of gender is synonymous with freedom. An exciting new immersive experience by one of the leading artists on the international scene. The piece begins in a politically correct world with suffocating gender labels under the banner of freedom of expression.
For the creators of The Bacchae , the idea of queer is more than a set of personal preferences. It is an opportunity to look at the world in a new way. Papakonstantinou delves into the famous Greek tragedy about Dionysus God of wine and pleasure and uses it to cross all kinds of borders. As a director, I follow the flows of text, live music, video art and dance insearch of a new performative language.
This piece lies at the intersection of these flows: queer is a new aesthetic; here I embrace pop, kitsch and high art celebrating diversity: I wish that my audience moves from the mind to the senses and is moved by the perplexity and ambiguity of desire and sexuality. As sexuality and desire cannot be programmed or corrected, in my piece class struggle, politics and aesthetic folly merge into a vortex: Dionysiac life itself.
Costume Design: Ioanna Tsami. Assistant to the Director A: Spiros Sourvinos. Technical Coordination: Lambros Pigounis. Assistant to the Director C: Katerina Hristaki. Assistant to the Set Designer: Sofia Theodoraki. Produced by ODC Ensemble. Elli Papakonstantinou has created a contemporary adaptation, which is a theatrical vortex, a performative and explosive, mixture of genres such as theater, opera, and Queer culture … With her impactful staging this piece offers a powerful and exciting experience.
Set pieces swirl in all directions, clothing is largely removed, and in a succession of dance, music and visual effects we end up in an ecstatic, orgy-like flow … T he performance lifts off the ground and turns into an ecstatic burst of energy that no longer speaks through the mind but acts directly on the senses. It is rousing, sexual but above all suggestive, also because the participants in this orgy rarely have contact with each other, but everyone copulates with an imaginary partner.
