BRATTLEBORO — Vermont Theatre Company aims to immerse audiences in ancient Greece and Dionysian culture when "The Bacchae" is performed at 118 Elliot St.
"The story has a lot of different dimensions to it," said director Alex Hacker, who translated the play by Euripides from the Greek. "But in essence, it's a revenge tragedy, where Dionysus returns to his birthplace of the city of Thebes and he takes vengeance upon the city because they do not believe that he's a god, and they don't worship him there."
Dionysus sets out to destroy the royal family he was born into, Hacker said, "but a lot of what happens in this play is descriptions of what happens in the worship of Dionysus."
The show will run over two weekends, March 14 to 16 and 21 to 23, with Friday and Saturday performances at 7 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.
Much of the story involves "our modern musical culture," Hacker said. He was inspired by playing in bands and going to clubs.
"A lot of what happens in the worship of Dionysus, you know 2,400 years ago, is very similar to what goes on at a rave or a music festival," he said, finding "all those parallels really intriguing."
His first time putting on the play was about a decade ago in Baltimore. Members of the local scene in Baltimore composed the music. Two pieces are by Dan Deacon, a well-known electronic composer. One piece is by Gerrit Welmers from Future Islands. Another is by Matmos, an experimental electronic music duo.
"Their music really gives the show a lot of its inspiration," Hacker said.
During the show, audiences are invited to participate and will be treated as citizens of Thebes in the play. They can get out of their seat and dance.
At 118 Elliott, the audience will be on the side of "the stage."
"The space basically is the stage and the audience is in essence on the stage," Hacker said. "Dionysus does not discriminate ... and it's true, he wants everyone to be a part of his religion, in essence, his ceremonies. He wants everyone to experience what his power is through music, through dance, through the ritual, and so I thought it was very important to to put the audience on the level of the cast, so we're all there together."
The play was penned by Euripides around 400 B.C., said Hacker, who finds his writing and humor easier to make modern than other Greek tragedies.
"There's more emotion in his writing and he's a little more cruel," he said.
Robin Fitzgerald, who plays Dionysus, said their role has been adjusted since earlier iterations of the show.
"It's kind of a big ideal and persona to embody," they said. "And so I was shying away from it in the early stages of the show, but then tried to lean into it more as an opportunity to be like, When else am I going to get to act this flamboyant and this chaotic and beautiful and free in a way that's supported and embraced by so many people?"
Once their mindset shifted, Fitzgerald found the role to be what they called "a gift." Each rehearsal starts with a dance party as a warmup, they said.
"That's also been really helpful in being embodied in the space and the character, and also just seeing more parallels between Dionysus as confidence, compassion, but also the more darker, tactical, aggressive sides," Fitzgerald said. "It's been a very fun role to play, especially in that he doesn't really have a traditional character arc but there's a lot of layers always being embodied at different points, and so it's a fun thing to kind of tease apart and pick through at different moments."
Fitzgerald is pulling from different sources for inspiration including Tim Curry's Frank-N-Furter in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" film, drag queens, ballroom culture and a videogame called "Hades."
The cast also includes Jessica Iris, Tosha Tillman, Avery Thompson, Tracy Berchi, Chris Dubis and Mimi Fang as the Bacchae or chorus, John Marinelli as Pentheus, Keira Zagaeski as Agave, Geof Dolman as Cadmus, Kira Storm as Tiresias, Cyndi Cain as the Aide-de-camp, Kay Beckett and Thomas Ely as the Messengers, and Alex Lacey as First Officer. Casey Parles is assistant director. Kay Beckett and Dante Mauriello are the producers.
Dionysus is the god of wine, however, there won't be any imbibing at the show.
"People are welcome to join us after the show at whatever bar we choose to go," Hacker said.
