What is God? Good or evil? What is faith? Knowledge or possession? What is the mind? Reason or stupidity?
These are the questions asked by Krzysztof Warlikowski in the staging of Euripides' BAachantki/ Bacchantes. Dionysus (Andrzej Chyra), who appears among thunders in the form of a bull, is an androgenic creature, both wild and vengeful and feminine and delicate. Pentheus (Jacek Poniedziałek), young, imperious ruler of Thebes, fights the new religious cult. He believes Dionysus is an usurper, a fraud threatening the national order. The meeting of the king with the god becomes a duel of the mind and mysticism, order and chaos, the male and female elements. Penteus yields to the god and wants to know Dionysus' secret. Dionysus however gets revenge on the sceptic. He sends madness on Penteus' mother Agave (Małgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik), who kills her son with her bare hands. The public leaving the theatre sees his bloody remains thrown on a table. Warlikowski's staging is very controversial, it caused various reactions, but no indifferent opinions.
Krzysztof Warlikowski tells about how God is, how we can get to know him and who he comes to. And he does it with passion, which I haven't long seen in Polish theatre, wrote Łukasz Drewniak in Przekroj.
Warlikowski's staging was born from incredible pride. (...) Warlikowski overstepped the limit of the ridiculous. (Jacek Wakar, Życie 13-02-2001)
Bacchantes are stunning through the courage of touching the darkest mysteries of existence, courage and clarity in researching the essence of deity and the necessity imposed by fate and destiny. (...) This staging is another step widening the borders of theatre (Piotr Gruszczyński, Tygodnik Powszechny 04-03-2001).
Euripides, BACHANTKI / BACCHANTES, translated by Stanisław Hebanowski, directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski, scenery designed by Małgorzata Szczęśniak, music by Paweł Mykietyn. Premiere: February 9, 2001 at Rozmaitości Theatre in Warsaw.