Went to see The Bacchae last night in Edinburgh. I don’t get to see a lot of theatre, but this was really good. All the various moods were pumped up- the humour was very pantomime-y (suitable, for the Kings), the histrionics very powerful, and the angriness very angry. But none of this came over as forced or seperate from the play. It all worked as part of the experience: the shocks from the story and the playing (and the artifices) were suitably jarring, but didn’t knock us out of the story. Perhaps that makes for a slightly sleepy experience? Do I want theatre that is more challenging than this? I was, it must be said, very entertained by the play. I don’t expect to be educated or regularly disturbed, by the things I see, but I think that the story had a bit more to tell that my experience last night was a bit too comfortable to include. The horror of the play was not as apparent as it might have been; even though the play attempts several visceral, bloody moments, the horror remains intellectual rather than, well, horrifying. Perhaps it’s to the detriment of my own audience-skills that I found the intellectual tragedy less sharp than I might have done.

Nevertheless, The Bacchae was a wholly compelling spectacle, with enough humour, flashness and grisly fate to go round. I didn’t feel a stab in the guts though; perhaps this is because it is such a balanced production, and one whose finger-pointing at the audience is very subtle. Absolute power always ends up achieving revenge rather than justice, we’re told. But the lesson that might have had for us is handled very lightly.