Matthias Langhoff’s African Bacchantes as performed in Epidaurus

Abstract

The staging of antique drama on the modern scene is always a challenge. In Germany, stage directors frequently try to take up the gauntlet, in a tradition established in this field by Max Reinhardt in the early 20th century. In Greece, where this type of theatre originated, there is an oppressive heritage in the interpretation of antique tragedy and comedy, which is torn between the German, French and Anglo-Saxon “schools” of thought and artistic expression. Stage director Matthias Langhoff, who trained at Brecht’s Berliner Ensemble and is well-known for his willingly irreverent work, was invited by the National Theatre of Northern Greece to propose an innovative look at tragedy through the staging of Euripides’ Bacchantes. For eight months, he worked with the local company on the production which was finally presented at the Epidaurus Theater in August 1997. The current study begins with a summary of the staging of antique drama in Greece. It then proposes an analysis of Langhoff’s production, giving special attention to the chorus, a pivotal theme of all performances of antique theatre. This production is compared to the representation of the Bacchantes staged by Klaus Michael Grüber, an achievement which stood out at the Schaubühne of Berlin in 1974 and to which Matthias Langhoff frequently made more or less explicit, reference.