The Bacchae

a dramatic and foreboding watercolor and ink sketch of two Greek tragedy figures staring at each other, with an ominous headed scepter between them. Streaks of red suggest blood and death.
Euripides (Playwright), J.R. Cassidy (Director)
Fall, 2025

Duke Players Fall Show

The Bacchae

By Euripides

Directed by JR Cassidy (T'26)

October 23 to 26 at 8 p.m.

October 26 at 2 p.m.

Brody Theater (Branson Hall 100, East Campus)

Free Tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/the-bacchae-duke-players/tickets 

In the dark, ancient future, Dionysus, the god of wine, ecstasy and theater, invades the city of Thebes. With him are the Bacchae: his devotees, all women, liberated from nations of the world and afflicted with the god’s erotic madness. When Pentheus, Thebes’ arrogant king, refuses to worship Dionysus, civilization goes to war with chaos. Mother turns against son, bodies turn against brains, and the lines between male and female, human and animal, and sane and insane are ripped apart. With one of the most famously tragic endings in the history of theater, The Bacchae amputates all rationality to ask emotional questions which still resonate after 2,400 years. Is there a free will? What are we without civilization? Half Midsommar, half Macbeth, the play is dark, ritualistic, gory and magical. It shows us the apocalypse, the end of human thought and the beginning of the human creature.