The Bacchae Play Analysis

On Wednesday March 8th, I attended Portland State University’s production of The Bacchae. The play was originally written by Euripides, but was translated from the original Greek by William Arrowsmith. This production was directed Richard Wattenberg. I found the show was very well down and did enjoy it overall, however there were some elements that didn’t seem to work within the production. The areas that I will be focusing on in my analysis of the production will be, acting, costumes, set design, and audience. While the acting in this performance, one actor I like in his performance was Skye McLaren who played Dionysus, while one I liked less was who played Tiresias. Skye played a Greek god very convincingly. He was always very aware of his presence, he carried himself as more important than the rest of the cast, which as a god, he was. All of his movements were very eloquent, giving him a regal feel. The register in which he spoke was higher than I …show more content…
This fact may have helped explain why a large percentage of the audience was older. There was one comment I heard during the intermission from an older gentleman referencing how all of the students were on their phones. The house was not very full, this once again is most likely because of the day I saw the show. I sat in the third row and did not see most of the audience, however there was one man I saw who got up repeatedly during the first act. As the show opened I found myself going in and out of involuntary attention. One reason I believe this was happening was because of the fact that this was my first Greek play and I was trying to look for some of the elements that we discussed in class. The next part was Dionysus’s costume, while as I stated above I finally decided I liked them, I had to make that decision, which took me out of the moment. Lastly, I was not feeling well that night and there were moments that my entire concentration was on not