Dionysus (1970)

Filmed stageplay based on the ancient greek play The Bacchae written by Euripides. This play is performed by members of The Performance Group, an NYC experimental theater group who has made... See full summary »

Directors:

Brian De Palma, Richard Schechner

Writers:

William Arrowsmith, Euripides (play)

Stars:

Remi Barclay, Samuel Blazer, Jason Bosseau

1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Remi Barclay	...	John
Samuel Blazer	...	Dionysus
Jason Bosseau	...	Dionysus
Richard Dia	...	Dionysus
William Finley	...	Dionysus
Joan MacIntosh	...	Dionysus
Vicki May	...	Dionysus
Patrick McDermott	...	Dionysus
Margaret Ryan	...	Dionysus
Will Shepherd	...	Pentheus
Ciel Smith	...	Dionysus

Storyline

Filmed stageplay based on the ancient greek play The Bacchae written by Euripides. This play is performed by members of The Performance Group, an NYC experimental theater group who has made their own personal adaptation of this ancient text. Filmed by Brian DePalma.

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Plot Keywords:

1960s | theater | split screen | live performance | stage | 

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Taglines:

A Celebration of Feeling, Loving, Wanting, Killing, Hearing, Tasting, Touching, Living.

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

X

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 March 1970 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dionysus in '69

Company Credits

Production Co:

Performance Group

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Did You Know?

Trivia

Brian De Palma:  [Split Screen]  The entire film is shown in split screen.

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Connections

Remade as Backanterna (1993)

User Reviews

Oddly appealing....

According to sources on the internet Brian De Palma captured this surreal performance of The Bacchae written by Euripides in 1970. It features among others William Finley who would continue making films with Brian De Palma, the latest being The Black Dahlia (2006).

Watching it now makes for a strange yet appealing viewing, this being experimental theater from 1960-70's and as such is pretty narrow. I was not prepared for the madness, odd quirks, nudity that was put forth.

Does it sound weird? This film, doesn't lend itself for easy review because it's a surreal, personal adaptation of an old ancient Greek play that I haven't read yet and thus can not fully say what, who, this is about.

It simply is a group people doing experimental theater that doesn't suit everyone but gives the viewer an explosion of wild improvisation, crazy behaviour, and a performance of an ancient Greek play that few have seen before.

The audience is also a part of this performance with actors, talking directly to them, hiding among them etc. The film is using splitscreen(filmed by hand-held cameras) throughout the performance which makes it even harder to follow everything that happens but offers a more intimate look and conveys an feeling of participation to the viewer.

Many viewers will regard this film as an pretentious, art-house film, others like me will probably like this surreal, symphony of human emotion. Regardless it serves as a fine time capsule on how experimental theater looked 1960-1970's.