Dionysus in '69

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.