





Marlene Monteiro Freitas
Bacantes - Prelude to a purge
Past dates
8/24/17
8:30 PM
8/25/17
8:30 PM
8/26/17
8:00 PM
A crazy update of Euripides’ tragedy THE BACCHANTES as+ an expressive-existential visual frenzy.
Marlene Monteiro Freitas took international stages and audiences by storm with her expressive and vital dance pieces – now she is coming to Hamburg for the first time and with her most ambitious work yet. For BACANTES – PRELUDE TO A PURGE, she assembles eight dancers and five trumpeters for an off-the-wall update of Euripides’ tragedy THE BACCHAE (Portugese: Bacantes). She uses his theme of a battle between order and reason on one side and irrationality and intoxication on the other to develop an existential trip of high visuality that is inspired both by the carnival in her hometown on Cape Verde and by mythological motifs and pop culture. In a contemporary parade of complex figures, she grotesquely elevates scenes from everyday life to create disturbing musical states of ecstasy. Absurd comedy turns into profound tragedy and vice versa. BACANTES thus develops an emotional density that some would call cathartic – at least, the audience at the world premiere in Lisbon was moved alternately to outburts of laughter and pensive stillness.
Evening Sheet (PDF) available for downlad here.