”The Bacchae” – A short history of Decay After ”Bacchae” by Euripides Directed by Igor Vuk Torbica

NI National Theatre of Bitola   Among the few existing Greek tragedies of Euripides, Bacchae stands out because of thematic and formal reasons, but mainly because the Bacchae contain the allusion of theatre, speaking about the hidden power of theatre and the civilization benefit of storytelling. It can easily be said that Bacchae are the pre-beginning of the metatheatre text. The text itself is a deep riddle about the relativity and change of our identity. A study of the divine and a reminder that “divine” sometimes comes in forms and shapes that we are not ready to recognize or embrace.  However, maybe the most important question of this play is the question of identity, and why is it that instead of embracing the common values we share and fight for, we end up constructing the identity on the basis of the hostility towards our enemy? Are we using this to hide the fact that the real enemy lies within us? That we are strangers to each other and to ourselves and are we not sabotaged by the social obstacles that we impose on ourselves? Igor Vuk Torbica, director   Igor Vuk Torbica is a graduate of the Class of theatre and radio directing at the Faculty of drama in Belgrade (2013). He is the recipient of the “Hugo Klein” award for best student of his generation and his graduation play was featured on the repertoire of the Yugoslavian drama theatre. It also was awarded the best play at the Smederevo theatre festival. For the play “Hinkeman” at the theatre in Uzhice he was awarded the prize “Ardalion” for best stage director, and was praised by the jury and audience for the overall performance by the cast. At the 31^st Gavela Evenings Festival- “Hinkeman” wins again for best play and Torbica for best director,and at the 24^th edition of the International Rijeka theatre festival this play is crowned with 4 prizes among which the one for best director.   Cast: Dionysus- Maja Andonovska-Ilijevski Pentheus- Ognen Drangovski Tiresias- Sonja Mihajlova Cadmus- Ivan Jerchic Agaue- Ilina Chorevska Messenger-Martin Mirchevski Servant- Vasko Mavrovski Choir leader- Viktorija Stepanova-Jankulovska Bacchae choir: Valentina Gramosli Petar Spirovski Sandra Gribovska Anastazia Hristovska   Dramaturg- Biljana Krajchevska Costumes- Blagoj Micevski Stage design- Valentin Svetozarev Music-Aleksandar Dimovski