Bakkhai

Pentheus has banned the wild, ritualistic worship of the god Dionysos. A stranger arrives to persuade him to change his mind. Euripides’ electrifying tragedy is a struggle to the death between freedom and restraint, the rational and the irrational, man and god.

Using three actors and a chorus, echoing the original performance model, James Macdonald returns to the Almeida to stage Euripides’ hedonistic tragedy in a visceral new version by Anne Carson.

Ben Whishaw makes his Almeida debut as Dionysos and Bertie Carvel returns to the Almeida as Pentheus.