Rehearsal photos of Ben Whishaw and the cast of Bakkhai at the Almeida theatre
Rehearsal images are released today for Bakkhai – the second play in the Almeida Greeks Season. Directed by James Macdonald, Anne Carson’s new version of Euripides’ hedonistic, visceral tragedy echoes the original Ancient Greek performance model by using three actors and a chorus.
Ben Whishaw makes his Almeida debut as Dionysos alongside Kevin Harvey and Bertie Carvel who returns to the Almeida as Pentheus. The Bakkhai include Amiera Darwish, Aruhan Galieva, Eugenia Georgieva, Kaisa Hammarlund, Helen Hobson, Hazel Holder, Melanie La Barrie, Elinor Lawless, Catherine May and Belinda Sykes.
Pentheus has banned the wild, ritualistic worship of the god Dionysos. A stranger arrives to persuade him to change his mind. Euripides’ electrifying tragedy is a struggle to the death between freedom and restraint, the rational and the irrational, man and god.
