Gillian Tan

A queer reimagining of Euripides’ Bakkhai in Anne Carson’s translation, devised with the NYT REP Company and directed by Maisie Newman — recipient of the 2022 Bryan Forbes Directors Bursary, mentored by Sarah Frankcom. Underscored with original electronic dance music, raucous, and unafraid to pull the text apart in order to find out what it’s made of.

Carson’s language keeps the strangeness intact: Dionysus arriving, order unravelling, bodies losing themselves to something larger. The production doesn’t just inherit the text — it interrogates who gets to write it and who gets to tell it.

The lighting design leans into that spirit: from the controlled and architectural to the elemental, finding the moments where light stops describing space and starts doing something else.

★★★★ “Newman and Head unbind the text, extract from it, add to it, and then rebind it in ways that show deep appreciation for the play and the possibilities it presents. It is a Queer imagining that boldly tackles the politics of the writing and telling of history.” — NorthWestEnd

“Bakkhai carves a new version of this play into history.” — NorthWestEnd