Peter Hall's 'Bacchai'

Observation of the rehearsal process in minute detail, as a production moves from readthrough to preview.

Dionysos, the God of wine and theatre has returned to his native land to take revenge on the puritanical Pentheus who refuses to recognise him of his rites. Remorselessly, savagely and with black humour, the God drives Pentheus and all the city to their shocking fate."Bacchai is one of the top dozen plays ever written. Whenever it's performed, it seems extraordinarily timely. It's haunted me all my life.' Peter Hall After huge successes with Aeschylus' The Oresteia and Sophocles' The Oedipus Plays, Peter Hall turned to Bacchai, Euripides' powerful tragedy about the cult of Dionysus. On the National's Olivier stage he presented a stunningly imaginative production played in masks, using a new translation by Colin Teevan, with original music by Harrison Birtwhistle, and designs by Alison Chitty. Jonathan Croall observed the rehearsal process in minute detail, regularly interviewing the actors and creative team as the production moved from readthrough to preview. His book offers an intimate and absorbing picture of how a team of world-class theatrical talents brought one of the masterpieces of Greek theatre to the stage. This new edition includes an extra chapter on the production's visit to the ancient theatre of Epidaurus in Greece, and a new foreward by Peter Hall."