Table Of ContentErIkA FIScHEr-LIcHTE is Professor “The changing fortunes of The Bacchae, as told in this Before the late 1960s, Euripides’ The
Blackwell Bristol
of Theatre Studies at the Institut für engaging book, are almost as dramatic as the play itself. lectures on Bacchae had almost no performance record
Greece, rome
Theaterwissenschaft at the Freie Universität Long neglected, it made an astonishing comeback in the and the classical on modern stages. Since then, the play
tradition
of Berlin and Director of the International sixties, capturing our world of cultural and religious clashes has been staged many times in the United
Blackwell Bristol
research centre “Interweaving Performance lectures on with uncanny precision. In these pages, Erika Fischer-Lichte States, Africa, Latin America, Europe,
cultures.” She has published extensively Greece, rome has turned a classic into a masterwork for our time.” Blackwell Bristol and Asia. Drawing parallels between the
on the history of the theatre and on the and the classical Martin Puchner, Harvard University F lectures on elements of transition, transformation,
tradition isc
reception of Greek tragedy. Her most recent h Greece, rome and violence in the second half of the
e
r
publications include Theatre, Sacrifice, Ritual: “There is only one person (Fischer-Lichte) who has -L and the classical twentieth century and the plot of The
Exploring Forms of Political Theatre (2005), the experience, the knowledge, and the perspectives – ich tradition Bacchae, Fischer-Lichte argues that the
t
e
The Transformative Power of Performance: theoretical, theatrical, political – to write this book. It play’s reflection on features identified
A New Aesthetics (2008), and Performance simultaneously illumines the ancient Bacchae and the today as consequences of globalization
D
and the Politics of Space: Theatre and Topology contemporary global theatre.” allowed the performance to accomplish
(edited with Benjamin Wihstutz, 2012). Oliver Taplin, Oxford University what the ancient viewers believed
i
Dionysus, the protagonist, brought
o
“For the first time, performances of The Bacchae are studied about. In this sense, the author contends
n
from a world perspective – North, South, East, and West. that Dionysus resurrects as the god of
y
Fischer-Lichte’s pioneering book is illuminated by her globalization, rendering the tragedy a
s
nuanced conceptions of ritual.” contemporary play. By analyzing and
u
Maria Shevtsova, University of London contextualizing these performances
s
worldwide, Fischer-Lichte reveals the
R reasons behind the resurrection of this
much discussed but, until recently, rarely
e
performed tragedy.
Dionysus
s
u
r
r
Resurrected
e
c
t
e
Performances of Euripides’ The Bacchae
d
in a Globalizing World
Erika Fischer-Lichte
jkt_9781405175784.indd 1 30/9/13 14:24:50
CH03 09/09/2013 11:5:30 Page90
FFIRS 09/17/2013 11:11:33 Page1
BLACKWELL BRISTOL
LECTURES ON
GREECE, ROME
AND THE CLASSICAL
TRADITION
Dionysus Resurrected
FFIRS 09/17/2013 11:11:33 Page2
Blackwell Bristol Lectures on Greece, Rome and the Classical
Tradition
Series Editors: Neville Morley, Charles A. Martindale and Robert
L. Fowler
TheBristolInstituteofGreece,RomeandtheClassicalTraditionpromotesthe
studyofGreco-Romanculturefromantiquitytothepresentday,inthebeliefthat
classical culture remains a vital influence in the modern world. It embraces
researchandeducationinmanyfields,includinghistoryofallkinds,archaeology,
literarystudies,arthistoryandphilosophy,withparticularemphasisonlinks
betweentheancientandmodernworlds.TheBlackwellBristollecturesshowcase
theverybestofmodernscholarshipinClassicsandtheClassicalTradition.
Publications
Why Plato Wrote
Danielle S. Allen
Tales of the Barbarians: Ethnography and Empire in the Roman West
Greg Woolf
Dionysus Resurrected: Performances of Euripides’ The Bacchae in a
Globalizing World
Erika Fischer-Lichte
Past Speakers and Lectures
2013MarkVessey, UniversityofBritishColumbia“WritingbeforeLitera-
ture: Later Latin Scriptures and the Memory of Rome”
2012BettinaBergmann,MountHolyokeCollege“WorldsontheWall:The
Experience of Place in Roman Art”
2011ColinBurrow,AllSoulsCollege,TheUniversityofOxford“Imitation”
2010ErikaFischer-Lichte,FreeUniversityofBerlin,“DionysusResurrected:
Performances of Euripides’ The Bacchae in a Globalizing World”
2009GregWoolf,St.AndrewsUniversity,“BarbarianScience:Ethnography
and Imperialism in the Roman West”
2008DanielleS.Allen,InstituteforAdvancedStudy,PrincetonUniversity,
“Philosophy and Politics in Ancient Athens”
2007 Ian Morris, Stanford University, “The Athenian Empire”
Future Speakers
2014 Andrew Feldherr, Princeton University
2015 Susan E. Alcock, Brown University
2016 Glenn W. Most, University of Chicago
FFIRS 09/17/2013 11:11:33 Page3
BLACKWELL BRISTOL
LECTURES ON
GREECE, ROME
AND THE CLASSICAL
TRADITION
Dionysus
Resurrected
Performances of Euripides’
The Bacchae in a
Globalizing World
Erika Fischer-Lichte
FFIRS 09/17/2013 11:11:33 Page 4
This edition first published 2014
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ISBN978-1-4051-7578-4(cloth:alk.paper)–ISBN978-1-118-60975-0(epub)–ISBN
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FTOC 09/09/2013 11:57:23 Page5
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Preface ix
Introduction 1
–RediscoveringTheBacchae–
PartI: FestivalsofLiberation:CelebratingCommunality 25
Chapter1: TheBirthRitualofaNewTheatre 27
–RichardSchechner’sDionysusin69
inNewYork(1968)–
Chapter2: CelebratingaCommunionRite? 48
–WoleSoyinka’sTheBacchaeofEuripides
atLondon’sNationalTheatre(1973)–
Chapter3: SparagmosandOmophagia 72
–Teat(r)oOficina’sBacantesinS~aoPaulo(1996)–
PartII: RenegotiatingCulturalIdentities 91
Chapter4: OntheStrangenessandInaccessibilityofthePast 93
–TheAntiquityProjectattheSchaubu€hne
Berlin(1974)–
Chapter5: PerformingorContaminatingGreekness? 116
–TheodorosTerzopoulos’TheBacchaein
Delphi(1986)–
Chapter6: InSearchofNewIdentities 136
–KrzysztofWarlikowski’sTheBacchae
inWarsaw(2001)–
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vi CONTENTS
PartIII: ProductiveEncounterorDestructiveClashofCultures? 157
Chapter7: DismembermentandtheQuestforWholeness 159
–SuzukiTadashi’sTheBacchaeinJapanandon
WorldTour(1978–2008)–
Chapter8: TransformingKathakali 186
–TheBacchaebyGuruSadanamP.V.Balakrishnan
inDelphiandNewDelhi(1998)–
Chapter9: BeijingOperaDismembered 206
–PeterSteadmanandChenShi-zheng’sTheBacchae
inBeijing(1996)–
Epilogue 225
NameIndex 231
SubjectIndex 236
FACKNOW 09/09/2013 11:48:34 Page7
Acknowledgments
Itis no secretthat authors rely on the help of other people, without whom
their books would not get written.
IwouldliketothankCharlesMartindalefortheinvitationtoBristoland
Pantelis Michelakis for taking such good care of me while I was there. At
WileyBlackwell,IamgratefultoAlfredBertrandforprovidingmewiththe
initial guidance, to Haze Humbert and Ben Thatcher for seeing the project
throughfromstarttofinish,andtoElizabethSaucierformanagingthepublic
relations side of the book.
Iamalsoindebtedtothefourrespondentstomylectures,MartinWhite,
David Wiles, Fiona Macintosh, and Oliver Taplin, whose insightful com-
ments flowed into this book, as well as to the readers of the individual
chapters,SusanneKlengel,MałgorzataSugiera,NatassaSiouzouli,Georgios
Sampatakakis, Eiichiro Hirata, Vasudha Dalmia, Phillip Zarrilli, and Shen
Lin. I would also like to thank Fiona Macintosh and Maria Shevtsova for
their helpful remarks after reading the full manuscript.
Dorith Budich and Konrad Bach provided invaluable assistance by for-
mattingthemanuscriptinaccordancewiththestylesheetandtakingcareof
thepermissionsfortheimagesandthequotes.IamverythankfultoUrsula
Schinke for taking on the unenviable task of typing out my handwritten
manuscript pages. Last but not least, I am very grateful to Saskya Jain for
editing the manuscript.
FACKNOW 09/09/2013 11:48:34 Page8
