LIFT and Sadler’s Wells present Bacchae: Prelude to a Purge Marlene Monteiro Freitas

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Seven performers dressed in white are holding music stands. Some holding their arms up and others pulling faces.

A raucous and absurd carnival processes onstage to the sounds of Brazilian funk, clown antics, pop, and Ravel’s Boléro.

Five trumpeters and eight dancers scream, sing, and don masks, eventually joining in a mad, mesmerizing rendition of Ravel’s Boléro. Half carnival, half decadent variety show, this seductive “Bacchae” embodies the Dionysian spirit that drives the play, dark side and all. Marina Harss

In this wildly delirious work, Cape Verdean-born, Lisbon-based choreographer and performance artist Marlene Monteiro Freitas dares you to traverse the order and wild chaos of Euripides—and ultimately, the depths of the human psyche.

In 2017, Marlene was acknowledged by the government of Cape Verde for her cultural achievement. In 2018, she created Canine Jaunâtre 3 for Batsheva Dance Company and was awarded the Silver Lion award for dance at the Venice Biennale.
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Header image © Laurent Philippe
Image description: Seven performers are holding props that look like music stands. They are all dressed in white, some are sitting and some are standing. They look like they are having fun, with some throwing their arms up and looking at the camera, some pulling faces and others completely absorbed in the movement they are doing.
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Running Time

2 hours 15 minutes (no interval)

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Content WarningsFind out more about any content warnings or audience advice for this presentation.

Recommended for ages 12+

UK premiere

A kind of carnaval… in which up is down, all inhibitions are shed, and madness reigns.
★★★★★ DANCE TABS

Did you know?

Originally created for a ballet and with influences from jazz, Boléro is a repetitive orchestral crescendo composed by Maurice Ravel. While you might not know the name, you’re very likely to have heard this music before. The piece was a universal success when it was released in 1928. It has been described as, “a sinuous and sexy composition with ‘no music in it’”.

Euripides was a famous playwright in Ancient Greece. He wrote a play called The Bacchae, a tragedy based on a Greek myth about the punishment of a king and his mother by the god Dionysus. Also known as Bacchus to the Romans, Dionysus was Greek god of fertility and later came to be god of wine and pleasure. His followers were known as the Bacchae and they often celebrated together in wild, raucous gatherings.