The seventh annual international theatre festival “Sirenos” ant the OKT / Vilnius city theatre is extremely pleased to announce that on the 26th of February 2010 the famous Japanese theatre director Tadashi Suzuki is going to showcase his performance “Dionysus”, an interpretation of “Bacchae”, a play by the great tragedian of Classical Athens Euripides. The performance will take place in the Black hall of the Arts Printing House (Siltadarzio st. 6, Vilnius)

Suzuki is one of the most important innovators, thinkers and directors of contemporary theatre. Internationally acclaimed for his elegant, musical and intensely physical versions of classical theatre, Suzuki is not only one of the world's foremost theatre directors, but also an important performance theorist. His powerful actor training system, which combines elements of Noh and Kabuki with Western realism, has a sublime and unique place in the contemporary theatre.

Based on ancient Greek tragic dramatist Euripides' "The Bacchae", the play Dionysus traces the conflict between the god of wine Dionysus and King Pentheus of Thebes. When Pentheus refuses to accept Dionysus as a god, Dionysus tries to punish the people of Thebes. He possesses the women, including Pentheus' mother Agave, entices them to go to Mount Cithaeron. Dionysus lures Pentheus to the women's revelry on Cithaeron, where Pentheus is torn to pieces at the hands of the worshippers. In a mind-controlled trance, Agave returns from the mountain carrying the head of Pentheus. When her madness passes, Agave comes to face the death of the son, and for the first time realises that she is the scapegoat sacrificed for the interest of the whole cult group

According to an article in the world-famous American newspaper The New York Times, “his productions are, first of all, physical. By his own design, the director leads his actors in exercising body language - strange, spasmodic movements that often seem to defy traditional use of muscles. Actors wheel rather than walk on stage, as if propelled by interior motors. They drop to the floor with the suddenness of a rifle shot. Even in repose, their faces have the iconographic expressiveness of Kabuki”.

Date: February 26th, 2010
Time: 7 PM
Venue: Arts Printing House (Siltadarzio st. 6, Vilnius)
Tickets: www.tiketa.lt