From Rudolphus9@aol.com Sun Apr 16 16:32:17 2000 Received: from mxu4.u.washington.edu (mxu4.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id QAA43154 for ; Sun, 16 Apr 2000 16:32:16 -0700 From: Rudolphus9@aol.com Received: from imo15.mx.aol.com (imo15.mx.aol.com [152.163.225.5]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id QAA10317 for ; Sun, 16 Apr 2000 16:32:15 -0700 Received: from Rudolphus9@aol.com by imo15.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v25.3.) id d.65.33d4a94 (4260) for ; Sun, 16 Apr 2000 19:32:06 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <65.33d4a94.262ba775@aol.com> Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2000 19:32:05 EDT Subject: Re: More Euripidea: Lantern Theater's The Bacchae To: classics@u.washington.edu MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL for Macintosh sub 146 Sodales: Has anyone seen the Lantern Theater Company's presentation of The Bacchae of Euripides now playing at St. Stephen's Theater, 10th and Ludlow in Center City Philadelphia, through May 14? If so, what did you think of it? I found it enjoyable and moving, though Paul Schmidt's translation seems too "Christian" with Zeus being God the Father and Dionysos, the Son of God who experiences Transfiguration. Also there are some clunky rhymes in the choral odes (e.g., "top" with "stop"). The young cast did well with its parts and interpretations. Unlike the recent presentation of Oedipus Rex by the Aquila Co. at Temple University, The Bacchae was without masks and in ancient costume. We were given a sheet entitled "A Greek Vocabulary Primer" which is a good idea per se, but unfortunately the sheet had several orthographic and other errors and did not apply in some respects to the play at hand. They should have had a competent classicist review it. Some years ago I saw Dr. Helen North's students do The Bacchae in ancient Greek in full costume at Swarthmore College's outdoor theater on a sunny afternoon. That presentation spoiled me for all time in regard to The Bacchae .. No presentation can measure up to it for me. But I keep searching! Most cordially, Rudy Masciantonio Rudolphus9@aol.com Dr. Rudolph Masciantonio 429 S. 20th St. #A Philadelphia, PA 19146 215 732-6431 .