In an American dystopia, women suffer endless harassment, and right-wing politics wrench away women's control over their own bodies; in response, Americans heed the call of Dionysus, and flee to new, strange, euphoric rites in Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization. General Pentheus, leader of the American war machine, swears to go to the Middle East, liberate the women, and drag them back to the US.
"Pacanowski uses The Bacchae as a vehicle to drive her own experiences as a combat medic, civilian, and woman, home to the audience […] to confidently lay bare trauma, feminine defiance, and her blistering criticism of the American military." -- Broadway World
"The production feels as liberated as Dionysus's followers, subverting the restraints of traditional theatre with a nonlinear plot and perspicuous performances." -- Broadway World
"The production feels as liberated as Dionysus's followers, subverting the restraints of traditional theatre with a nonlinear plot and perspicuous performances." -- Broadway World
Note from the Directors
Dionysus in America closely follows the structure of Euripides’ 2,500 year-old play, The Bacchae, but features several playful inversions that speak to the playwright’s childhood among a decaying Pennsylvanian working-class economy, her combat experience as a medic in Iraq in 2003, her experiences as a combat veteran returning to “civilian” life, and her experiences of class-conflict during the ‘Great Recession.’
Jenny has done something that only a new playwright would do: she has refused to simplify the structure or style of Euripides. Instead, she has leaned into the complexity of the original to tell a story rife with contradictions and bitterness, and hopes both false and true.
KA & JM, 2019
Dionysus in America closely follows the structure of Euripides’ 2,500 year-old play, The Bacchae, but features several playful inversions that speak to the playwright’s childhood among a decaying Pennsylvanian working-class economy, her combat experience as a medic in Iraq in 2003, her experiences as a combat veteran returning to “civilian” life, and her experiences of class-conflict during the ‘Great Recession.’
Jenny has done something that only a new playwright would do: she has refused to simplify the structure or style of Euripides. Instead, she has leaned into the complexity of the original to tell a story rife with contradictions and bitterness, and hopes both false and true.
KA & JM, 2019