202412:31 PM UTCIn pictures: Greek wildfire spreads to edge of AthensA fast-moving wildfire fueled by gale-force winds spread to the edge of Athens houses and cars and forcing evacuations of several hospitals and a dozen towns and villages [2/31]Volunteers try to extinguish a wildfire burning in Nea Penteli [3/31]Volunteers remove flammable material from the fence of a damaged marble factory [5/31]A burned house and a car are seen following a wildfire in the Penteli area near Athens [6/31]Firefighters try to extinguish a wildfire burning in Dionysos [8/31]A damaged house and a destroyed car are seen as a wildfire burns in Vrilissia near Athens [9/31]Flames rise from a wildfire burning in Nea Penteli [10/31]The interior of a burned house is seen as a wildfire burns in Rapentosa [11/31]A burned car and charred trees are seen as a wildfire burns in Rapentosa [12/31]People stand on the roof of a building as smoke rises from a wildfire burning in Vrilissia [13/31]A tree burns as flames and smoke rise from a wildfire burning in the village of Varnavas [14/31]A firefighting plane makes a water drop as a wildfire burns in Grammatiko [15/31]A destroyed vehicle is seen at the yard of a burned house as a wildfire burns near the village of Varnavas [16/31]A building is seen in flames as a wildfire burns in the village of Varnavas [17/31]Firefighters try to extinguish a wildfire burning in Dionysos [18/31]A firefighter tries to extinguish a wildfire burning in Grammatiko [19/31]A firefighting helicopter makes a water drop as a wildfire burns in Varnava [20/31]Firefighters try to extinguish a wildfire burning in Dionysos More in this CollectionSee all picturesItem 21 of 31 A firefighter tries to extinguish a wildfire burning in Dionysos REUTERS/Alexandros Avramidis[21/31]A firefighter tries to extinguish a wildfire burning in Dionysos REUTERS/Alexandros AvramidisShare this gallery , opens new tab Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. , opens new tabScreen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. © 2025 Reuters. All rights reserved This week’s featured project takes us on a very cool adventure with Marco Petrini of Petrini Studio Marco is a New York City-based architect and architectural photographer Marco came across the abandoned Dionysos village was an ambitious settlement project initiated by the SOE company in the late 1990s such as excessive garbage on Analouka Beach with a few residents and apparent squatters occupying some properties.” I asked Marco what it was like to be at Dionysos and he shared “Honestly given the limited information available online about this place I stumbled upon it while exploring the area on Google Earth in search of something interesting and this unexpected discovery left me feeling a little intimidated (a huge abandoned village in the middle of nowhere!) and the sound of distant voices and some old since I was alone and I had my gear with me (camera it turned out some of these houses (although very few) were still inhabited although I would have loved to set up my tripod and capture multiple exposures and different compositions I dedicated nearly two hours to exploring the village Despite just being a quick personal project I really appreciate Marco’s use of strong shadows and highlights and pull out the colors and textures found throughout the village My favorite thing about this project is that the pictures have the architectural equivalent of the “uncanny valley” effect to them From far away the village looks pretty normal but the closer you look the more clues you see that it is deserted and that something is not quite right The juxtaposition between the cheerful colors and the conditions of the village is really interesting to see “The strong wind and rapidly changing sky/light conditions added something magical to the experience I had to continuously change my settings as the light transitioned from harsh highlights/deep shadows to completely overcast This allowed me to capture the space in several ways which I found truly intriguing,” Marco notes I was curious to know how much effort Marco put into “cleaning things up” whether that be on-site or in post-production – or if Marco left things as they appeared “The photos faithfully represent the space as it is; I purposely refrained from any post-processing removal or cleaning I made only essential adjustments in Lr (cropping My goal was to convey the genuine and unaltered reality of this place in its raw but I couldn’t decipher her intentions… She began to talk to me in Greek and while I couldn’t understand what she was saying from the tone of her voice it was clear that I was not welcome there given the overgrown plants and winding paths (almost like a labyrinth you can see it clearly from the aerial shots) I asked Marco what lessons he learned along the way When I first came across this place on Google Earth I was uncertain whether the three-hour drive would be worthwhile the lack of information online piqued my curiosity I’m glad that I ultimately made the decision to visit!” it’s almost impossible to tell that Dionysos Village is in its derelict state “Everything looks perfect from far away,” eh? A massive thanks to Marco for submitting this cool personal project to us In addition to this fun personal project, Marco’s portfolio sports some truly lovely commissioned work that you should absolutely check out. You can see more of Marco’s work at petrinistudio.com and on Instagram @patrinistudio If you have a project you’d like to be considered for Project of the Week, you can submit it here. Big opening weekend for 200 years of Museumsinsel Berlin (30. May – 1. June 2025): Ticket sales started! With the Island Festival Ticket you can visit all the museums on Museum Island for one day Berlin’s Antikensammlung and the Berlin offices of the German Archaeological Institute joined forces in 2006 to conduct research into the largest bathing complex in Roman Miletus The alterations that took place to the building from its construction sometime in the second half of the 2nd century AD up to its abandonment in the Byzantine period lie at the heart of this DFG-funded project depicting numerous pagan deities (Apollo and the Muses several statues of Aphrodite) and honorific statuary are the most important reflection of the transformations that occurred in the transition from the Roman imperial period to late antiquity and the early Byzantine epoch The manner in which the statues were altered is a sign of their reinterpretation to suit Christian sensibilities while the fact that many were repositioned offers an insight into shifting viewing habits and the role the objects played within the architectural space a meticulous analysis of the building’s history was undertaken as part of the project to flesh out in greater detail and with greater accuracy the various construction phases outlined only in cursory detail in the initial publication written on the site Targeted sondages both inside and outside of the building provided additional clues as to the chronology of construction and changes in use Investigative analysis into the structural ornamentation and other small finds completed the picture Funding: DFG Duration: 2007 to 2012 The findings of the archaeological investigation are being prepared for publication Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Residence in Dionysos by Desypri & Misiaris Architecture is a family home designed as a minimalist refuge among the surrounding nature's pine tree-filled slopes contemporary comforts and a sense of retreat among the pine tree-filled nature of its location.  archetypal geometric forms – rectangles cylinders – and a composition of surfaces headed by practice founders Ira Desypri and Aristeidis Misiaris yet comfortable home that drew inspiration from 'the archetype of primitive shelter' Creating a monolithic central volume out of exposed concrete the architects evoked the idea of something elemental – a rock or prismatic formation a series of aluminium panels on the façade add texture and fine detail to the whole.  A protected terrace behind the site's boundary wall becomes one with the main living space when its glazing is drawn back It hosts a swimming pool whose water creates a gentle juxtaposition with the ground level's stone external walls.  The level above contains the bedrooms and bathrooms alongside a linear southern-oriented balcony with a stair that leads up to the accessible flat roof Everything is crafted in the same material pallette The home's openness and the local climate's pleasant nature for most of the year allows for a strong relationship to form between indoors and outdoors living travelling through the interior during the day.  the ever-changing natural light continually transforms the sensory spatial experience illuminating different facets of the architectural composition coupled with the linear staircase beneath the elongated roof opening narrating the passage of the day,' the architects write.  escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox 'The sensory narrative of the project extends into the evening hours the monolithic volume disappears into the starry sky protectively framing the life it encloses and surrounds The element of fire in the centre of the residence and the warm lighting highlight the earthy warmth of the dwelling We hope that the residents and their visitors living and meeting in their contemporary shelter desypri-misiaris.com Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper* She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006 visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas Ellie has also taken part in judging panels such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022) The world’s leading publication for data science Hello there. Today I will follow up on my previous adventure in the world of Wine and what can be done with its data in my previous post’s closing remarks I wondered about how interesting it would be to have an individual taste profile for each bottle which could then be matched to the taste preferences of a person Turns out there’s no need to work at a wine-selling website to do this it’s called a "recommender system" The style of today’s anecdote will differ It won’t be a coding tutorial as there are plenty of those Although it may be of some interest to tell you that everything here below can be done through Python and there’s many free resources online to learn how to I’d like to talk about two things: the first is how to match a person’s tastes to wines they’ll potentially like which turns out to be a mind-numbingly simple process data-driven map of wines according to their taste as judged by hundreds of thousands of users this is the first time that a map like this has been done But first things first: we need data about wines specifically about individual bottles of wine to which people assign some tastes to There isn’t such a dataset out there in the wild One way to do this is by coding a "webscraper" to scrape such data off a wine-selling website but there’s plenty of blog posts out there that openly say they’ve done it in a romantic way it could be seen as a modern twist on the Robin Hood legend where the websites that extract data from us everyday are themselves the victims of their scheme I’m not earning anything out of this we magically have a dataset of wines with their taste features estimated we’ll pick some threshold to include only wines that have a certain number of user votes we’ll need the taste profile of a user which consists in all the ratings he or she has left on bottles of wines since he happens to like my favorite bottle of wine the taste features of which can differ considerably so we’ll narrow down the model on his favorite type: Bordeaux Reds The next step will consist in running a linear regression (that is _"a machine learning algorithm"_ in marketing speak) on his user data and then generalize our model to the rest of the bottles in the wine data there are way too many taste features assigned to the wines so we’ll need to compress them without losing signal which essentially means they’re correlated and that’s bad for the model if we consider flavors such as "coffee" "mocha" and "espresso" then it makes sense that there will be votes from various users scattered across all these 3 features that actually come from the same origin: a coffee-like taste The sole thought of dealing manually with this issue is daunting there are better options; one of these is Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is "squashing" the features in the dataset we can go from over 200 taste features to just 20 The drawback is that these compressed features aren’t interpretable as the original ones however that isn’t an issue here and you’ll see why in a moment the compressed features wouldn’t match between datasets with the rating score as dependent variable What this does is fit a line between the user’s ratings and the compressed taste features it "learns" what numbers to assign to the coefficients that get multiplied to the values of the taste features to determine the ratings I’ll try to make it so with the good ol’ linear regression formula: these betas/thetas/coefficients we obtained can be multiplied with the values in the corresponding taste features of any wine giving Em’s predicted rating for that bottle they represent Em’s combination of unique taste preferences for Bordeaux Reds this model should be applied to wines that are coherent with the training set I did that for 307 bottles of Bordeaux Médoc variety (which is Em’s most rated) Here below you can scroll and see the values for all the taste features of Em’s potentially liked and disliked wines (i.e their predicted rating is above or below some thresholds) The names and prices of the wines have been purposely omitted We’re looking at the original data before PCA compression therefore the taste features still have meaning the results seem to suggest that Em would prefer earthy and smoky wines with blackcurrant and red fruit hints and Petit Verdot grape while tending to dislike those with a strong chocolate and leathery taste with hints of tomato Of course the only way to actually test this would be to have Em taste these wines and let us know what he thinks I’m keeping track of which wines I like and dislike to eventually experiment on myself If you have this type of data and want to try let me know one of the biggest wine-selling websites introduced such a taste-wine matching service for their users I’m willing to bet it doesn’t work too differently from what I presented here Machine learning aficionados will notice I skipped the "cross-validation" step where I would have avoided using part of the wines in the user data to train the algorithm using this subset to instead assess the validity of the learnt betas by comparing the predicted rating versus the actual rating it would have been fundamental: if we predicted poorly the ratings then some corrections would have been warranted such as considering another learning algorithm The general principle stays the same though who is doing some rather interesting things on the topic through this algorithm I made a meaningful map of wines arranged according to their taste arranged according to their scores in 169 different tastes as voted by approximately 492.516 unique people Not to beef with any sommelier and their rigorous study of the subject but this half a million human hive-mind is likely a more reliable estimator of the taste of wines than the brief descriptions generally found on bottles Let me present you the interactive plot where you can explore this map As far as I know you’ll be among the first to have the occasion to do so It isn’t the same as exploring a new continent With some guidance from a friend knowledgeable in JavaScript I included buttons that highlight the wines linked to the corresponding taste(s) These tastes could be assigned on a bottle-by-bottle level as it gives more insight on why the algorithm chose to arrange the wines in the 2-dimensional space as it did although the only informations it used were the individual bottles’ taste scores Unfortunately, I can’t embed directly the interactive plot here, so you’ll have to go to this link: https://dionysus-stempio.netlify.app/ Once again, names and prices of wines were purposely omitted. Although I briefly tinkered with the idea of turning the plot into a tool where one could see inexpensive alternatives to high luxury wines, supposed to be judged similarly in terms of taste. However, in the end I decided not to. Humans are notoriously bad at separating the price payed for a wine from its objective taste (proof here) this is true also for other luxury goods (did someone say Apple or Gucci?) I think it may be a neat idea to have a more visually embellished version of this map, perhaps even in 3 dimensions, at a museum like Bordeaux’s Cité du Vin for visitors to play around with This concludes the series on wine and its data Albeit few things are motivating as good wine I’ll be looking out for new serendipities in the age of data bonus colorful figure in case you were wondering which are the most appreciated wine specialties : Step-by-step code guide to building a Convolutional Neural Network Here’s how to use Autoencoders to detect signals with anomalies in a few lines of… Solving the resource constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) with D-Wave’s hybrid constrained quadratic model (CQM) An illustrated guide on essential machine learning concepts Derivation and practical examples of this powerful concept Columns on TDS are carefully curated collections of posts on a particular idea or category… The world’s leading publication for data science Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker The ‘birthplace of drama’ – the Theatre of Dionysus located on the south slope of the Acropolis – is to be partially restored in a 6 million project that is set for completion in 2015 The ancient open-air theatre in Athens saw the premire of many of the great dramatic works written during the ‘golden age’ of Greek Tragedy Famous ancient playwrights – such as Aeschylus Sophocles and Aristophanes – took part in competitions staged twice yearly at the Dionysus theatre; the City Dionysia festival during the spring and the Lenaia in wintertime The limestone and marble version of the theatre – built in the 4th century BC – seated an estimated 14,000 to 17,000 spectators Scholars still differ in opinion concerning the architecture of the first Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus in Athens shape and even the precise location of the original orchestra and of the seating benches that once surrounded it have all been disputed Some suggest circles for the theatre’s original structure others suggest trapezoid forms of differing shapes and sizes Only a small section of the stone theatre – restored and redesigned by Roman emperor Nero – was excavated in the 19th century and is still visible today The restoration works will gradually add several tiers to these using a combination of new stone and recovered ancient fragments while strengthening retaining walls and other parts of the building — A Roman marble head of Dionysos finished above the rest at Cottone Auctions’ September 28 sale when it sold for $413,000 above an $80,000 estimate The work had descended through the same family for the past 100 years and came with a 1923 invoice from the Kalebdjian Frères Antiquaires from the first half of the Second Century CE after an early Fourth Century BCE late classical Greek archetype Cottone said that the work had an enormous amount of presale interest with 15 phone bidders on the line vying for it Across The Block Easter Weekend Auctions Bring ‘Hoppiest’ Bidders To Copake Fine & Fanciful Finishes In DuMouchelles’ April Auction Greece/Athens: A fast-moving wildfire fuelled by gale-force winds spread to the edge of Athens on Monday Hundreds of wildfires have broken out across Greece since May extraordinarily hot and dry weather linked to climate change has made blazes more frequent and intense Wildfires fanned by extreme heat have also raged this month in parts of Spain and the Balkans More than 670 firefighters backed by volunteers 32 waterbombing planes and helicopters battled the latest wildfire that broke out at 3 pm (midday GMT) on Sunday near Varnavas 35 km (20 miles) north of the capital the seaside municipality of Nea Makri and the fringes of Athens' densely populated northern suburbs at the heavily wooded Mount Penteli We feel great sadness and anger," 24-year-old Penteli resident Marina Kalogerakou told Reuters outside her home Strong winds were constantly changing the direction of the fire and the extent of the area engulfed by flames was estimated at 30 km (18.64 miles) Winds were expected to pick up further in the coming hours a researcher at the National Observatory of Athens "We have a very difficult day ahead of us," he told state TV ERT Firefighting aircraft resumed operations early on Monday after an overnight pause Police said they had helped evacuate at least 250 people in danger Some residents spent the night in shelters but authorities could not yet provide an exact number At least three hospitals and several communities had been evacuated in the Penteli area with flames as high as 25 metres (82 feet) had spread "like lightning" due to gale-force winds fire brigade spokesperson Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said on Sunday Thick clouds of smoke darkened the sky over Athens by Sunday evening the flames were nearing the residential suburb of Dionysos about 23 km (14 miles) northeast of the city centre Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited the fire brigade's operations centre on Monday morning after rushing back from a holiday break on the island of Crete - with memories still fresh of a 2018 fire that killed 104 people in the seaside town of Mati After its warmest winter on record and long periods of little or no rainfall Greece is forecast to record its hottest-ever summer It is on high fire alert at least until Thursday with temperatures forecast at up to 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) "Unfortunately the forecasts...were confirmed," Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said in a televised statement and the first aircraft were operating five minutes after the wildfire broke out This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page announces that the Houses of Dionysos and Aion at the archaeological site of Kato Pafos and the House of Eustolios at the archaeological site of Kourion House of Dionysos: 4 March 2024 – 8 March 2024 House of Aion: 11 March 2024 – 12 March 2024 House of Eustolios: 20 March 2024 – 21 March 2024 Newcity Art by | January 11, 2016 Statue of Young Dionysos, 100 B.C.-A.D. 100. On anonymous loan to the Art Institute /Photo: Richard Valencia Johann Theodor de Bry. “Melpomene, Muse of Tragedy, plate 8 from Parnassus Biceps,” 1601. Through February 15 at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 South Michigan Elliot Josephine Leila Reichert is a curator, critic and editor. She is the inaugural Curator of Contemporary Art at the Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University. She was formerly Curatorial Fellow at the Chicago Artists Coalition, Art Editor of Newcity and Assistant Curator at the Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University. By 2023-11-23T11:50:00+00:00 Riina Hyytiä and Nora Kuusisto
Photo: Tuomo Manninen Finnish writer-director Selma Vilhunen and producer Venla Hellstedt who were previously company leaders at Helsinki-based Tuffi Films will join Dionysos Films from the start of 2024.  Tuffi has produced titles such as Stupid Young Heart (Berlinale Crystal Bear winner) Hobbyhorse Revolution and the 2014 Academy Award nominated short Do I Have to Take Care of Everything Tuffi’s other credits include Jenni Toivoniemi’s Games People Play the feminist omnibus Force of Habit and Marja Pyykkö’s youth film Sihja Tuffi was known for its female-centric work and now they join the all female leadership team at Dionysos The move comes after Tuffi went through a period of financial instability in 2023 as with many other independent production companies The company – which went into a debt reconstruction programme in June 2023 had produced 40 projects over the last 13 years It is now closed for new productions but continues as a legal entity for rights and royalties to pay its debt Riina Hyytiä and director-screenwriter Johanna Vuoksenmaa founded Dionysos in 2008 with producers Leena Mäenpää-Bentley and Nora Kuusisto joining in recent years “We have visited each other’s companies over the years and discovered that we share similar values and ambitions Our industry is facing huge changes and the outlook is not very clear we have a choice of either start turning the lights off or invest in the future to make sure that the light will shine even brighter in the future “I am very thankful for Dionysos reaching out to us and excited about the new beginning Dionysos Films has done ground-breaking work for a long time produced significant works and reached impressive audience numbers over the years It is marvellous to get to work together and to see what kind of stories we can produce together.”  Vilhunen noted that she is currently working on her “most challenging project” – the feature adaptation of the novel Defiance by Tommi Kinnunen The project will now be produced by Dionysos The story of Defiance follows five Finnish women who had been working for the German army in northern Norway in the last months of World War II; they escape while being transported to a prisoner camp and began a perilous journey home across the tundra and burnt-down villages of Lapland a frequent writer for Tuffi projects such as Stupid Young Heart will continue working as a freelancer.  EXCLUSIVE: Film takes place inside the body of a 10-year-old boy Kaye Elliott takes over the post from Lyndsay Duthie ‘Ish’ and ‘Learning To Breathe Under Water’ will also feature Monday’s statement to reporters follows Truth Social Screen International is the essential resource for the international film industry access to the Screen International archive and supplements including Stars of Tomorrow and World of Locations Site powered by Webvision Cloud The Unseen Museum welcomes the new year with a wish This is an Attic red-figured calyx-krater with a representation of Dionysos and Nike The blessing of Dionysos was brought out on Monday in the «altar room» (room 34) and will remain there on display on Sunday Exhibit presentation Powered by Tool Text description provided by the architects. Nestled on the northern slope of Mount Penteli, amidst the serene pine-covered neighborhoods of Rea, lies the “Residence in Dionysos”. The project aims to respond to modern lifestyle while simultaneously evokes the sense of protection and familiarity of a primitive “cave refuge”. The synthetic process draws inspiration from the archetype of primitive shelter. This archetype, deeply rooted in human history, linked with the concept of "dwelling", has shaped spatial preferences over generations, highlighting the enduring influence of our ancestral connection to the idea of home. On ground level, living spaces are organized in direct connection to the outdoors. The two contradictory qualities of space are connected by an atrium that acts as an intermediate space. © George SfakianakisIn the evening hours the monolithic volume disappears into the sky The element of fire and the warm lighting highlight the earthy warmth of the dwelling will discover each time with a hint of surprise You'll now receive updates based on what you follow Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors If you have done all of this and still can't find the email How did the ancient Greeks envision life after death Yet some individuals believed they could avoid such a fate and ensure a better outcome for their souls Organized around a monumental funerary vessel on loan from National Archaeological Museum in Naples and recently conserved at the Getty Villa this exhibition explores depictions of the Underworld in the art of Greece and southern Italy Beyond tales of famous wrongdoers and rulers of the dead the objects on view highlight the desire for a blessed existence after death Organized in collaboration with the National Archaeological Museum of Naples – Laboratory of Conservation and Restoration Journey to the Underworld to learn how the ancient Greeks imagined the afterlife—and what they feared and hoped for. {{event.calendarInfo.calendar.calendarName.$t}} {{event.eventYearShortString.$t}} {{event.eventTimeString.$t}} Edited by Ursula Kästner and David Saunders Purchase these and other publications in the Getty Museum Store. Explore three Orphic tablets, up close {{selectedEvent.calendarInfo.calendar.calendarName.$t}} {{selectedEvent.eventDateString.$t}} {{selectedEvent.eventTimeString.$t}} SEARCHThe global authority in superyachting The first unit in Soyaslan Marine's 35-metre Dionysos series is well underway with delivery scheduled for August 2024. At the forefront of the yacht's design is accessibility for wheelchair users, as well as for "people with different abilities and people with diverse mobility needs". This includes features such as wide gangways, spacious cabins, handrails and a six-person elevator that visits all floors – a rarity on a yacht of this size. Accommodation is for up to 12 guests and six crew, including a master cabin, VIP cabin and convertible "office cabin" – all fitted with en suites and entertainment systems. The office cabin benefits from "one of the largest balconies in its class," according to the broker. The flybridge has been positioned as the yacht's "party, exercise and relaxation area", designed with a DJ booth, a bar, eight-person table, sports equipment and sunpads. Additional sunbathing spots are found on the bow and upper deck. Powered by twin Cummins 449kWh engines, the yacht will be able to reach a maximum speed of 12.5 knots and a range of 3,450 nautical miles when cruising at 10 knots. The model belongs to a larger range inspired by the Greek god of wine, festivity and pleasure, with the series' flagship planned to measure 40 metres. The Dionysos 35 is asking €12,750,000 with 4U Yachting. Latest news, brokerage headlines and yacht exclusives, every weekday SubscribeSign up to our newslettersSign up to BOAT International email newsletters to get the latest superyacht news Boat International Media Ltd © 2008 - 2025 Content presented under the "BOAT Presents" logo is an advertising feature and Boat International Limited has been paid to include this content Mainstage awards for young actors went to Peter Erickson Rachel Forney and Jillian Michelle Gabby for their shared roles in "Les Miz." Rachel Forney also won an award for a role in "Disney's Alice in Wonderland Jr." in the Kate Goldman Children's Theatre; as did Douglas Cochrane Jackson Gabby and Aviana Gedler also received awards for their star turns in "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" and "The Hundred Dresses," respectively In all, the Playhouse handed out awards in 10 acting categories and 18 more for backstage, front-of-house and education volunteers Karen Schaeffer (who is married to the twice-nominated actor Maxwell Schaeffer) received the Dick Brown Superior Volunteer Award and actor Philip Sandager won this year's Gypsy Award for building a sense of teamwork among the cast of "Fiddler on the Roof." Nearly 300 Playhouse fans and volunteers showed up for Sunday's ceremony to honor the 1,700-plus volunteers who this year logged more than 77,000 hours for nonprofit theater AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTSlide 1 of 7,Wolfgang Rihm's latest operatic work "Dionysos," based on Nietzsche's "Dionysos-Dithyramben," had its premiere at the Salzburg Festival on Tuesday Share full article'Dionysos'Images from Wolfgang Rihm’s opera at the Salzburg Festival Andreas Helgstrand sold three more top offers in his barn: World Young Horse Championship finalist Bonderman Portuguese Sport Horse Dionysos de Massa and Oldenburg licensed stallion Milione The 7-year old Bonderman (by Belarus x Alabaster) has been acquired by Signe Kirk Kristiansen sister-in-law of Danish team rider Agnete Kirk Thinggaard Bonderman was first competed by Claudia Ruscher in Germany in 2016 The pair was 8th in the warm-up roundat the Bundeschamionate Ruscher continued to campaign the chestnut in 2017 at the Bundeschampionate qualifiers but did not make it to Warendorf In 2018 the breeder's daughter Hedda Droege took over the ride and showed the horse in some BuCha qualifiers Bonderman then moved to Helgstrand Dressage and got trained by Betina Jaeger who also competed him at the 2019 World Championships for Young Dressage Horses in Ermelo who has made her show debut with him at national M-level in Denmark in September German former Under 25 Grand Prix rider Sarah Runge has acquired the 6-year old Portuguese sport horse bred Dionysos de Massa (by Special Agent Amour x Xaquiro) Dionysos  was a bronze medal winner at the 2017 French Young Horse Championships "I already love him a lot he has such a lovely heart," Sarah told Eurodressage "Riding him gives you the feeling you can fly Runge last competed internationally in August 2018 She rode Dark Dynamic in CDI's in California in the spring of 2018 and Versace in Europe in the summer She has been training with Johann Hinnemann but recently relocated from Dusseldorf to Frankfurt and is now back to working with Gonnelien Rothenberger Hannes Lütt and Milione at the 2019 CDN AalborgIn June 2019 Sarah had also purchased the 5-year old Rhinelander bred and Oldenburg licensed stallion Milione (by Millennium x Lord Loxley x Champus) at Helgstrand Milione was originally owned by Dutch Eugene Reesink but he sold the horse in 2017 to Helgstrand The first half was sold to Andreas after the stallion was rejected at the Westfalian licensing and the Dane purchased full ownership after the colt got licensed in Oldenburg Runge did not keep the stallion for long and returned it we bought him maybe a bit too fast," Sarah confessed "It is an fantastic horse but we did not really fit together I’m happy that he founds his perfect rider with Lauren!" The horse has now been sold to American Under 25 rider Lauren Asher and is in Wellington Photo © Astrid Appels - Ridehesten Stalls for Rent at Durondeau Dressage in Peer, Belgium Exceptionally Well Located Equestrian Facility in Wellington, Florida Well-built Equestrian Estate With Multiple Business Opportunities in Sweden Stable Units for Rent at Lotje Schoots' Equestrian Center in Houten (NED) For Rent: Several Apartments and Stable Wing at High-End Equestrian Facility Stable Wing Available at Reiterhof Wensing on Dutch/German border Real Estate: Well-Appointed Country House with Extensive Equestrian Facility in the U.K. Rémi Blot An ancient coin that may have marked the homecoming of an island of Greeks led all bidding during Morton & Eden’s June 10 and 11 auction featuring Dionysos on the obverse and Silenus on the reverse which had an estimate of £30,000 to £50,000 ($51,125 to $85,208 U.S.) was allowed to return to their homeland 15 years after being forced out in 476 B.C They had been moved to Leontini (also called Lentini) which the auction firm calls “one of the most celebrated coins from antiquity and a masterpiece of engraving,” is believed to have been from a special issue marking the 461 B.C The symbols on the coin — Dionysos and Silenus — are both related to drinking and the return home was certainly a cause to which the Greeks could raise a glass.  All examples known of this coin are from a single pair of dies and this example has a provenance dating to “a European collection formed in the 1920s,” according to the auction house The coin has minor tooling in the obverse field and is graded by the firm as Very Fine The auction overall realized £1,056,838 ($1,775,488 U.S.) The firm is now accepting consignments for its next auction of ancient plaquettes and paper money to be held in November For more information about this or future auctions, telephone the firm at  (011) 44 20 7493 5344, email it or visit its website Euripides named his tragedy not after the god worshipped used by director Elizabeth Kirkland for the currently running production of "Bakkhai," plays with the atavistic tug of animal nature over civilized behavior and if you don't see how the latter two fit imagine a clash of overindulgence in the former three — emerges first on stage Dionysos serves as narrator-stage manager for events to come The Bakkhai signal they are coming via rhythmic thrumming that though from the Allen Bales Theatre lobby whence they emerged the Bachhae create a more compelling case for abandon over reason their dude sounds like Jim Morrison times Lord Byron times Prince The Bacchae make Dionysion worship seem a 24-7 Spreadhead — Widespread Panic followers healthier and somewhat less wasted — party But the actuality of Dionysus skews toxic-masculine: vainglorious especially given how excessively weird things devolve and are thrown into contrast by the ferocious Some of the more outrageous pronouncements and actions don't seem to hit the proper pitch; like Carson's script which veers from dire to screwball comedic hysteria and combative discourse without descending into melodrama Though the original predates The Bard by two millennia and Carson's came 400 years past Will's heyday adapting in style and tone to character and scene and over-dependence on Sir Basil Exposition messengers relating crazy stuff that happened offstage though Kirkland and crew come up with smart imagery and lighting suggestions such as an effectively horrific shadow-dismemberment projected through a scrim Yet even that's shafted momentarily by the too-easy ripping of an arm (arm-like prop) from a body that's got to take at least more effort than wrenching a chicken leg from its thigh It's layered in other senses: Airs of mystery linger What drives the Bacchae mad (those not-seen Especially as it's more the idea of Dionysos — wine rock 'n' roll's pounding ritual — than his actuality Then there's the 2,400-year-old puzzle of what Euripides meant but once as real to the Greeks as you or me — the playwright never saw "The Bacchae" performed dangerous jerks?" Bear in mind his Greek gods craved recognition "Bakkhai/Bacchae" could be suggesting denying instincts is a bad but caving in to them doesn't turn out so hot Bearing in mind Dionysos lords it over wine and theater it could be saying a little goes a long way or simply asking audiences to remain open to possibilities Art's not as much an answer as a link in the life-wide circuit of curiosity Cutting the clear contrast in disbelief is Alaric Rohl only allowed to feel like a fully living person when dressed as a woman to lure his disbelieving cousin-king into the claws of the Maenads as Pentheus (from the Greek word for grief)'s ill-fated granddad Kadmos and mom Agave Chesney wins sympathy in lighter early moments with blind seer Teiresias (Alexis Simmons) Tripp relishes Carson's word-gumbo: "I am something supernatural Can we just use that?" "Daimon" means minor god something like the jinn or djinn — genies — of Arabic folklore While it doesn't carry the diabolical connotations of "demon," Carson had to know that's how contemporary audiences would hear it The Bacchae savor the turbulent tumble of verbiage moving in a crazy quilt of styles from balletic to tribal showing off their thesauri for the pulse of nature: "...ivy green; olive green; fennel green; growing green; yearning green; we sap green; new grape green; green of youth and green of branches; green of mint and green of marsh grass; green of tea leaves oak and pine; green-washed needles and early rain; green of weeds and green of oceans; green of bottles ferns and apples; green of dawn-soaked dew and slender green of roots; green fresh out of pools; green slipped under fools; green of the green fuse; green of the honeyed muse; green of the rough caress of ritual; green undaunted by reason or delirium; green of jealous joy; green of the secret holy violence of the thyrsus; green of the sacred iridescence of the dance...." "Bakkhai" continues at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and closes with a 2 p.m. matinee Sunday, in Allen Bales Theatre at UA. Tickets are $10. For more, call 348-3400, or see www.theatre.ua.edu Where: Allen Bales Theatre at the University of Alabama We use cookies to personalize content and ads and to analyze our traffic and improve our service For Euripides—whom Aristotle labeled tragikotatos or “the most tragic” of the Greek poets—unpleasantness was a mindset “a matter of technique,” in the words of Anne Carson almost as soon as he began staging his plays his hometown of Athens—at that point the undisputed capital of the Greek world—was invaded by its rival Sparta the Peloponnesian War was still raging and Athens was on the verge of being reduced to total subjugation With his chilly outlook, Euripides implied that just as Athens’ reign of dominance was ending, so was that of traditional tragedy itself. Carson, whose translation of the Bakkhai has just been released by New Directions has written about how Euripides chafed against the confines of his given medium needing to say something new but having no vehicle with which to say it his final play—which Carson imagines as “the beginning before the beginning” in an introductory poem—was also his darkest and took thematic risks that make it Greek tragedy’s greatest link to the present-day In addition to withholding any obvious hero figure (a characteristic that feels almost modern) it is in danger of becoming almost too relevant if we were in the hands of a translator less capable than Anne Carson Eliot called “a continuous parallel between contemporaneity and antiquity,” daring her audiences to recognize how similar their lives Her early poem “TV Men” envisions the Trojan hero Hektor on a film set in Death Valley; in her landmark “verse novel” Autobiography of Red the mythic monster Geryon—murdered by Herakles as he goes about his twelve labors—is vividly re-imagined as a lovesick teen Carson is well aware that her work must issue from the ever-changing afterlife of the original an approach that requires cultural and textual fluidity In her rendering of the Bakkhai this involves focusing on character development and linguistic innovation more than “the big ideas” of the excessively theoretical One of Carson’s greatest achievements is her portrayal of the psychological destruction that occurs when the world of humans collides with the world of the gods the adolescent king of Thebes; its principal god is Dionysos a fellow beardless youth and the son of Semele a Theban woman impregnated by Zeus and later killed by a jealous Hera accused her of lying about the child’s father and proceeded to deny Dionysos’ godly stature he has returned to Thebes and driven all of its women mad with a bakkhic spell These young men—cousins no less—have been taken to represent the conflict between reason and irrationality but Carson emphasizes how they could also be seen as near duplicates in their parallel struggles with rites of passage While Dionysos must prove himself to be the godly son of Zeus Pentheus is shaped by the absence of his own father And whereas Dionysos has gone without any maternal presence Pentheus has perhaps been smothered by the love of his mother and aunts Early on it becomes apparent that the dueling yet analogous insecurities of these power-hungry teenagers will provide the germ of Carson’s character-driven interpretation Faced with Dionysos’ paradoxical ability to embody multiple extremes at once—whether they pertain to emotion or sexuality—Pentheus dons self-assertion like a costume This kneejerk belligerence has often been viewed as overcompensation for undeveloped masculinity Her Pentheus expresses an untrammeled jealousy for the “girl-faced stranger” with “long hair” and “bedroom eyes” who “mingles with the young girls night and day.” But is Pentheus envious of his deviant cousin’s cult-leader status Carson often explores the “unbearable,” and this disposition has frequently dovetailed with her career-long obsession with human desire Pentheus—practically drowning in unbearable undefined longing—has clearly captured Carson’s imagination and her conception of him stems from Euripedes’ own concern for the desperation of mortals but in the world of Euripides it is at least momentarily permeable—for instance when Pentheus admits that Dionysos is “not bad-looking” before immediately backpedaling Carson’s own inclination is to strip away the veil in its entirety As Pentheus hears more about the carefree ways of the Theban bakkhants—whose liberation is wide-ranging allowing for maternal languor as well as feverish assertiveness—the nature of his yearning is further exposed Dionysos convinces him to gaze upon the Theban women; the only catch is that he must dress like one of them No more spying on maenads?P: What kind of women’s dress did you have in mind first I’ll give you long flowing hair.P: Then what While the youthful king’s voyeuristic urge is most commonly explained as a nascent attraction to women Carson makes it seem just as plausible that he would rather be a woman or least be freed from a gender binary as tyrannical as he is  By establishing Pentheus’ self-consciousness from the start Carson is able to push his character well beyond the cantankerous tyrant we have come to expect and imbue this scene with an entirely new layer of tragedy we pity Pentheus not only for his gruesome end but for his perpetually receding self-assurance has peeled back his discomfort in a way that feels both novel and eternal Or Agave my mother?” the confused king asks the obstinate god; in Carson’s ethos this moment is nearly as tragic as Agave’s later realization that she has slaughtered her son the play’s female chorus possesses a breezy confidence that Pentheus will never achieve or even be able to openly admire “When shall I set my white foot in the allnight dances when shall I lift my throat to the dewy air like a fawn skylarking in the green joy of the meadow,” they chant as the Theban king slips on his “girl-guise” offstage They might as well be speaking from his subconscious Will Harrison writes about literature and visual arts If you visit the Palazzo Colonna in Rome to admire Annibale Carracci’s remarkable The Bean Eater along the same wall to its right there is Tintoretto’s portrait of Adrian Willaert seated at a spinet with Venice in the background The Flemish musician was maestro di cappella at St Mark’s for 35 years (1527 62) but nowadays his works are published performed and recorded less often than they deserve Tenor and director Tore Tom Denys founded Dionysos Now to bring Willaert’s neglected output back to musical life Three volumes have already been issued digitally and on abridged LP but the fourth instalment is the first to also appear on CD Passio Domini nostri Jesu Christi secundum Joannem has no solo Evangelist or any other roles such as in later Passions; everything is set polyphonically for the entire ensemble It was formerly attributed to Cipriano de Rore although Denys’s short booklet note mentions vaguely that ‘musicologists are now quite certain that it should be attributed to Willaert’ It would have been illuminating to read a somewhat fuller commentary discussing precise sources scholarship regarding authorship and the work’s musical content Another obstacle is the sung text of the Passion printed solely in Latin without translation Recorded in the attractively reverberant yet transparent acoustic of the refectory of the City Museum in Ghent Dionysos Now!’s seven male voices (one countertenor three tenors and three basses) perform with expert awareness of contrapuntal details A breadth of colours and sonorities are executed with marvellous dynamic flexibility while always inhabiting the music’s natural sphere The label Evil Penguin’s dastardly machinations extend to omitting the texts of six Willaert motets High-quality music-making is engrossing in Tristis est anima mea (manuscript part-books in the Royal College of Music) Ecce lignum crucis (Willaert’s book of five-part motets 1539) and Da pacem Domine (the mixed anthology Ecclesiasticarum cantionum It is puzzling why three other motets – Infelix ego (1546) Flete oculi and Dulces exuviae (both from Willaert’s revised second book of four-voice motets 1545) – are exclusive to digital platforms: the CD has plenty of spare running time Hopefully future volumes will achieve better consistency of content across all formats as well as diligent booklets sharing lucid insights – factors that will help to fulfil the project’s laudable goal to bring Willaert’s music to wider appreciation Passio Domini nostri Jesu Christi secundum Joannem Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information than the barnstorming opening weekend of operatic excess) in its exploration of Nietzsche's life and work with 15 pieces played over three weeks: an amazingly in-depth composer-feature in the middle of one of the most conservative festivals in the world Wildfire Today Over 10,000 people have evacuated from Agios Stefanos Greece as a large wildfire approaches the outskirts of the city Officials declared a state of emergency as fires pushed by strong winds burned for the third day Earlier two large children’s hospitals were forced to evacuate along with other outlying suburban areas a resident of the threatened Athens suburb of Dionysos told of his scramble to leave his home on web messaging site Twitter Fires near Rodopoli (West of Dionysos) and approaching Rapendoza (just East of Dionysos),” he wrote on Saturday evening he gave the update: “Evacuating Dionysos Stuck in traffic with two terrrified dogs and hundreds of panicky drivers Fortunately Alexios was able to reach the city centre He wrote an hour afterwards: “Escaped the evacuee convoy early safely in Athens proper (dogs safe too).” Those who have left their homes now face an anxious wait to see if the flames will engulf their homes Here is a video that shows some of the action It is narrated in a British accent which adds to the drama A portion of it is still photos without narration European Union activates civil protection mechanism for Greece’s wildfires 23 (Xinhua) — The European Commission said here Sunday that it has activated the Community Mechanism for Civil Protection following a spreading wildfires in Greece The decision was made by the request of Greece after extreme weather conditions fueled the spreading of the fires in the country The wildfires continues to spread on Sunday in areas near Athens forcing hundreds of residents to flee their homes Italy immediately sent two Canadair CL-415 amphibian water-bombing aircrafts to assist in putting out the fires upon a request by the Monitoring and Information Center (MIC) France is ready to mobilize two Canadair CL-215 airplanes of the European tactical reserve of fire fighting aircraft (EUFFTR) which was established this summer to assist member states facing major fires Cyprus offered to send a fire fighting helicopter Typos, let us know HERE, and specify which article. Please read the commenting rules before you post a comment. Enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts by email. Avoiding the mass tourism and the madding crowds of Turkey's coastal resorts is easy – you just have to know where to look I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Marmaris is one of those place names, like Biarritz and Dubrovnik, that had always appealed to me. It seemed to evoke bazaars and minarets and characterful spice shops in Ottoman back alleys, and I was very much looking forward to visiting. Not that I could tempt the rest of the family to make a crack-of-dawn start from our lovely hotel an hour's drive away along the mountainous Bozburun peninsula. So it was just me and the hotel manager, Murat, making his regular Thursday trip to Marmaris market, rattling along in his refrigerated van talking football. There was plenty to discuss, the start of the Turkish season having been postponed for a month because of a corruption scandal, which had seen the president of Fenerbahce, one of the country's biggest clubs, thrown into jail. This was last August, and the postponement at least offered the players, and supporters, some respite from the searing heat of a Turkish high summer. On the return journey I was sorely tempted to clamber into the back with the watermelons. By then, my romantic image of Marmaris had been firmly punctured by the spectacle of the Poundtown Shopping Centre and a branch of Wetherspoon's. The food market was all that I had hoped for: a cornucopia of nuts, honey, dried herbs, and unfamiliar vegetables – I counted half-a-dozen different varieties of aubergine. But upstairs was a clothes market of the stuff nightmares are made of – a sweaty throng of overweight and oversunned western Europeans fingering fake Lacoste shirts. Too late, I learnt that Marmaris was first dragged downmarket by the heavy-drinking Finns, then the Germans, and now the British, who have also stamped their presence on the much smaller town of Turunc. Del Boy's Big Bazaar is what passes for a shopping opportunity and even my 13-year-old son could recognise the naffness of a T-shirt that read: "I'm A Sex Teacher – First Lesson For Free". Later, wandering round the well-preserved remains of an amphitheatre in nearby Amos, it was all too easy to question what progress civilisation has made these past 2,300 years. Still, I suppose there was a version of naffness even in the 3rd century BC. It is a remarkable place – affording the finest views I've seen from any hotel anywhere, across the bay to the distant Taurus mountains – and a triumph of graft as well as vision, for it took 40 stonemasons more than 18 months, and in excess of 1,000 lorry loads, to realise the dramatic picture in Ahmet's mind's eye. The estate also now includes an organic farm and an olive oil processing plant, which turns the fruit of the Dionysos olive groves into one of only three Turkish oils to feature in Flos Olei, the reference book that is to extra-virgin olive oil what Wisden is to cricket. According to Flos Olei, the hotel's Amos olive oil is endowed with "elegant fruity notes of medium-ripe tomato, white apple, banana, enriched by fresh hints of basil and nut". Never again will I describe any olive oil as "nice". Naturally, the hotel's own organic produce features abundantly in the menus, which are supervised by Ahmet's daughter Didem Senol, who runs a celebrated restaurant in Istanbul. We brought her excellent cookery book home, though pine nut and minced-meat borek definitely needs the Aegean in the background, rather than Coronation Street. Nor was the swimming itself; straight off the boat into crystal-clear water and millpond-calm except when the skipper tossed in the remaining ladies' belly-buttons, which were soon demolished by surfacing red mullet. We moored in several bays, including the splendidly named Pregnant Church Bay, so-called on account of the centuries-old church where young married women were sent if they were struggling to conceive, and where we were astonished to see a small herd of cows ambling down to the water's edge, as if to bid us good day. Turkey is full of happy surprises. Another was the Mehmet Ali Aga Mansion, set in glorious gardens on the Datca peninsula about a three-hour drive east from the Dionysos Estate. This too is a charming, idiosyncratic property, if a little quiet for the tastes of our three teenagers. The soundtrack to our three-day stay there was provided almost exclusively by crickets, and by distant muezzin summoning the faithful to prayer. For some, though, this was clearly a close approximation of heaven on earth. North Americans are always inclined to over-egg the comments book, but here they had done so with manifest feeling. "We came through the gates and became royalty," wrote the people from Chicago. We stayed in a converted stable, which was more than comfortable enough, but the grandest rooms are in the main house. These include the Mansion Suite, which was the Aga's bedroom, and where restoration uncovered a secret tunnel, probably designed, we were told, to give him discreet access to the female quarters. Either way, I think we can be sure that the Aga knew what ladies' belly-buttons really looked like. Brian Viner and his family travelled as guests of the Turkey specialist Exclusive Escapes (020 8605 3500; exclusiveescapes.co.uk), which offers 10 nights split between the Dionysos Estate and Mehmet Ali Aga Mansion from £1,184 per person. The price includes flights to Dalaman from the private-jet terminal at Stansted, transfers, breakfast and a day's sea cruise. Turkish Tourist Office: 020 7839 7778; gototurkey.co.uk Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Dr Christina Papastamati Von Moock will be in Australia next week to give lectures on the theatre of Dionysos A Greek archaeologist will be coming to Australia to speak on the theatre and sanctuary of Dionysos on the south side slope of the Athenian Acropolis on behalf the Greek Ministry of Culture and sponsored by the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens will present a lecture in Greek on her recent research of the cult site of Dionysos She will evaluate what role it had in the development of Euripides Aristophanes and Menander and how their work impacted modern western culture The theatre and the sanctuary was one of the most important cultural centres in the ancient world The theatre was dedicated to Dionysos who was a popular god with all the different classes in Ancient Athens said he is “particularly excited” about this upcoming lecture “She’s on a special committee for the restoration of the monuments on the Acropolis and the most famous one But she’s an archaeologist working on a committee that looks at all the monuments on the south side of the Acropolis and the most famous and important is the theatre of Dionysos And she’s done fantastic work in both getting the actual site of the first theatre into beautiful condition It used to be a real jumble of stones from all sorts of different periods and it was all in a bit of a mess but now it’s in a wonderful shape to see and now she’s managed to do some minor exploratory work in the theatre which has not been done for well over a century by anybody and she’s found evidence of the earliest stages of the development of the theatre which is really very exciting She has evidence that is going to reshape the way we think about the early history of that theatre which is wonderful.” Dr Papastamati-von Moock will present a lecture at the CCANESA Boardroom on behalf of the Greek Ministry of Culture titled “The Theatre and the Temple of Dionysos on the south slope of the Athenian Acropolis” The one hour lecture will begin at 6.00 pm and will focus on the sanctuary and theatre of Dionysos a god who held great power in all aspects of the Athenian society and the relationship between the Greco-Roman antiquities The lecture not only focuses on Athens but the entire Greco-Roman population in what promises to be an interesting and informative format The lecture will be held on Thursday 14 July. Bookings are essential for this event and cost $15 each. For more information contact arts.aaia@sydney.edu.au or call (02) 9351 4759 This feminist revival of a classical tragedy contains an almost orgasmic energy of empowerment and proves that it is possible to breathe new life into this ancient play / Right now your royal women / Sit under the blue green pines / On the slopes of Kithairon / Worshipping me in mind-blasted / Ecstasy.’ So declares Dionysos at the opening of David Greig’s 2007 translation of Euripides’ seminal tragic work God of wine and the desire to ‘lose’ oneself Dionysos thinks Thebes could do with some ‘livening up’; specifically through partaking in his famed rituals of madness after an alternative name for him: Bakkhos) give themselves over blindly to ‘the Scream’ in violent defiance of social order "hysteria is transformed into a kind of orgasmic energy which empowers rather than undermines the female ensemble" On the whole, Greig’s translation works well as a means of creating an anachronistic, sharp-edged world of tragedy but one which still holds traces of lyric beauty. Director Amelia Hills has chosen to capitalise on the modernity of Greig’s text, presenting the audience with a boldly feminist interpretation. As touched upon in the preview The Bacchae is not necessarily a straightforward text to handle in a feminist context; the theme of hysteria (an idea which emerged in ancient Greek medicine and associated with female sexual disfunction) has often historically contributed to readings of the text as a cautionary tale about the dangers of sexually deviant women Under Hills’ direction hysteria is transformed into a kind of orgasmic energy which empowers rather than undermines the female ensemble and Dionysos’ own gender is handled playfully In a gesture in the direction of Judith Butler Dionysos (an immensely entertaining Rosy Sida) is clad in a floor-length red dress and earns the first laugh of the show by gleefully announcing: ‘Man I felt the actors’ performances were the strongest aspect of the production The female chorus was able to execute some striking moments of physical theatre carefully planned by Musical Director (and actor) Alice Murray while some of the supporting roles were nicely done if a little bland (I wonder if Hills might have done something more with Tiresias such as Georgia Vyvyan as Agave and Eleanor Lind Booton as Kadmos Vyvyan’s Agave takes centre stage in the final scenes of the play and is wonderfully engaging as she progresses from dazed yet euphoric to devastated yet still queenly; likewise Booton’s Kadmos fared well in the opening scenes as sort of Jovial presence and still managed to convincingly portray a broken man at the show’s conclusion which worked well as a means of emphasising the show’s discussion of gender with Pentheus as the sole representative of a dual patriarchal contempt for and fetishization of the Bacchae’s sexual freedom Slipping into a high school-ish aesthetic of black leggings and red lipstick is something of a perennial danger with amateur Greek theatre could have done something more imaginative with some of its costuming choices and this is no doubt something it could have better achieved with a costume designer Props choices also frustrated me at various points the use of TK Maxx red plastic bags meant to hold the head and assorted body parts of the murdered Pentheus This sort of visceral approach worked well but was undermined by the fact that Galvin was sat on stage with a sack over his head for the entirety of this final scene and the attempt to be both gorily realistic and symbolic in the same moment was ultimately distracting as it was suitably atmospheric and lent an air of unreality to the choruses I especially liked the shadows produced in the final chorus which effectively turned the four chorus members into innumerably more to create the impression of a final and universal pronouncement: ‘No – you can't choose the gods that you worship / No – you just have to worship them all’ The action itself seemed to lose a bit of steam towards the end although the actors did their best with the somewhat drawn out conclusion as a whole the production did not feel like two hours without an interval and certainly proves that it’s possible to breathe new life into this excellent tragedy Varsity is the independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge In order to maintain our editorial independence our print newspaper and news website receives no funding from the University of Cambridge or its constituent Colleges We are therefore almost entirely reliant on advertising for funding and we expect to have a tough few months and years ahead we are going to look at inventive ways to look at serving our readership with digital content and of course in print too Varsity is the independent student newspaper for the University of Cambridge All content © 1996-2025 Varsity Publications Ltd