"As Bacantes" is an adaptation of "The Bacchae" (Euripedes 405 bc) that brings back the original ritualistic theater in the form of a “tragycomédiorgya", a musical performance of 25 chants that lasts aproximately 5 hours.

Directed by the acclaimed Brazilian theatre director José Celso Martinez Correa (a.k.a. Zé Celso) and enacted by the company Teatro Oficina Uzyna Uzona, this piece celebrates the return of the god Dionysus to Thebes, by putting thirty actors, singers and musicians on stage in a truly carnivalesque opera, an
"Ópera Elektrokandomblaika De Carnaval". Afro-Brazilian deities, pop music, politics and celebration are invited on stage to transpose this Greek tragedy to present-day Brazil.

"As Bacantes" was first staged in 1996, in São Paulo, Brazil. It was re-staged with different casts throughout the past years and toured several cities in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Manaus, Belém, Belo Horizonte, among others). In 2011, it was presented in Liége, Belgium, at the Festival Europalia and in Lisbon, Portugal, at Teatro Municipal São Luis.

photos from 2009 tour by Arthur Max, Cafi, Marilia Halla, Nancy Moira and Neander Heringer