Peter Hall's 'Bacchai': The National Theatre at Work

(Paperback)

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'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.

Author Bio

Jonathan Croall comes from an acting background: his father John Stuart was a star of the early British cinema, his mother a drama-school teacher and leading voice coach. He has been editor of Arts Express magazine, of the National Theatre's magazine StageWrite, and the programmes editor at the Old Vic. He is the author of Sybil Thorndike: A Star of Life; Buzz Buzz! Playwrights, Actors and Directors at the National Theatre; The Coming of Godot: A Short History of a Masterpiece (nominated for the 2005 Theatre Book Prize); and Hamlet Observed, Inside the Molly House and Peter Hall's 'Bacchai' in the series The National Theatre at Work. His latest theatre book is John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star. His other books include the biography Neill of Summerhill, and the oral history Don't You Know There's a War On: Voices from the Home Front, and the children's novel Sent Away.