Queer Bromius: LGBT versions of The Bacchae
Since Graeco-Roman antiquity, Dionysus has appeared to many as the god who traces and confuses the liminality between masculine and feminine, between excess and ritual. The subversive power of Dionysus in destabilising patriarchal and gender-sexual norms lies at the very centre of Euripides’ The Bacchae. As the tragedy progresses, Pentheus, the authoritarian and patriarchal king of Thebes, gradually succumbs to the powers and seduction of the newcomer Dionysus. As a result, Pentheus dresses up as a bacchant to join the Bacchic celebration that he himself had prohibited, where he will be finally murdered and dismembered at the hands of the followers of the victorious Dionysus.
Given the gender-questioning and subversive power of Dionysus, it is not surprising that Euripides’ Dionysian tragedy has received great attention from theatre creators interested in exploring the non-heteronormative, even anti-heterosexist, potential of this ancient tragedy. In fact, just months before the Stonewall rebellion in New York, in 1969, Richard Schechner was already exploring the same-sex erotic and physical seduction of Dionysus over Pentheus in his renowned production Dionysus in 69. Since then, The Bacchae has become the most widely used and successful ancient tragedy in the broader phenomenon of LGBT stage versions of Greek tragedy, the focus of my Queer Tragedy project.
In this seminar I will explore three productions that took place at different historical moments and geographic locations to understand how The Bacchae and its queer god Dionysus have been used to expose LGBT identities, eroticism, and politics, and thus question, dismantle, and subvert heteronormative power: Allain Rochel’s gay The Bacchae (Los Angeles, USA, 2007); Enrique Olmos de Ita’s trans/travesti Bacantes after party (Aguas Calientes, Mexico, 2019); and Gay Sweatshop’s Lesbian version of The Bacchae, Kitchen Matters (London, UK, 1990). With these three examples, and mentions and illustrations of others, it will be possible to elucidate more precisely how and why Dionysus appears as the queer god par excellence on the international LGBT stage.
