The figure of Dionysus––who abides within Shaw’s version of Tristan and Isolde––is given full and devastating reign in Euripides’ The Bacchae by Martin Shaw. Insulted by the denigration of his mother, Dionysus brings hallucinatory consequence on the people of Thebes. We enter a world of feminine power, eruptive nature and hard instruction.

‘Fawnskin, ivy garlands, the deadly wand of fennel, we adore the dream of the pinecone. Wake up dark houses! Your instructor has arrived! All are blessed, all are drunk with luck who submit to the shaky mysteries of the Deep God.’