"THE BACCHAE" IN EURIPIDES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2579, 29 September 1915, Page 10

"THE BACCHAE" IN EURIPIDES

i- The wondec of the Greek' drama of over. 2300 years ago held a large audience in ■thrall at the. Masonic Hall last evening, iwhen Miss Dorothea Spinney appeared in ;",Thn Bacchae" of Euripides. Aliss Spin-, ney, by -tho dramatic . virtues that are liers, enacted; with all simplicity this' quaint old tragedy. "The Bacchae' were the maidens-.iwho worshipped the'vaod Dionysiiis, thevgod of joy and nature, -known' as, Bacchus. When Dionysius. 'caino, tae'arthTMs people, denied his deity,', so .ho put a,"spell upon tliem, constrain-; . ing ■ the women ■ to worship him ecstactiically. , Pentheus, tho young King ,of sTliebes, conceives Dionysius to Veriest humbug, and Dionysius accordingly puts a spell upon him, and attired as d woman, permits him to view tho women at tlieir devotions in the mountains, .;.whereupon the interloper is mistaken for a lion, and torn to bits, the King's own mother being tho loader of the ecstatic ghouls. There,is a fine scene 'at the end; where;, the : mother' regains her senses, to find to her horror the head of her , son reposing in lier arms, and'here Miss Spinney, rose to fine emotional heights in depicting the agony of the ' mother, ■ and.,.the grief.,of .old Cacluiiis, ■ the' King's : grandfather.., y; . U, , 1 - f.On .Friday,'; evening,' Miss./ Spinney .will appear;-in "The i'Antigone of Sophocles ; . . on. Tuesday next? she wilM>e heard in three'-'modern Dlavs—a Pierrot play,-' one by W. B. Teats, and "another by Synge;oii' Thursday afternoon she will repeat' "The 'Trojan. Women" of Euripides,, in aid .'of the Serbian women, fop \v liicU-per-formance, free .-use .of the hall has .been , granted. - ■ . V., . '