In Blood: The Bacchae

In Blood: The Bacchae fuses the story of Besouro, a folk hero of the struggle for Afro-Brazilian equality, with Euripides’ tragedy of a seductive vengeful god returning to claim the worship of his unbelieving homeland. In a circular space, reminiscent of the ancient orchestra, the company make music, tell stories and thrash out ritualised conflict through the playful and visceral dance-fight-game of capoeira.

As Besouro, Daon Broni is cool and elusive, speaking eloquently but giving little away, except his unshakeable, invulnerable self-possession. By contrast, Greg Hicks hurls himself bodily into the role of Gordilho, the corrupt chief of police responsible for the shooting of Besouro’s mother. He stalks the stage, swaggering, snarling and paranoid, erotically fascinated by the death he deals on the streets.

Noah Birksted-Breen’s production sometimes seems haphazard, but its rough and tumble minimalism can make resonant symbols of the most simple objects. Frances Viner’s text throbs with images of passionate surrender to the sensuous pleasures of love and hate and vengeance, though some passages of exposition slow the show’s pace to a crawl. The most powerful moments are often almost wordless, as the chorus makes a circle of music and whirling bodies, tumbling and crashing like waves.

In Blood reaches a crescendo of Dionysiac intensity as Gordilho, achingly vulnerable in borrowed street-clothes, is lured into the dizzying street-fights of the roda. The subsequent frenzy of flying bodies and earth-shaking rhythms is gripping, unearthly, unpredictable and palpably dangerous. So dangerous, in fact, that enthusiastic use of a smoke machine tripped the fire alarm, and we all had to be evacuated to the safety of the nearest pub.

Perhaps inevitably, everything that followed was a mite anticlimactic. But with a fearless company of astonishing physical power, a compellingly gritty setting, and pulsing, spine-tingling music, In Blood is a sensitive and thrilling response to the hard questions and total theatricality of ancient tragedy.

In Blood: The Bacchae is at the Arcola until January 31: www.arcolatheatre.com

Watch the video trailer on YouTube.

Photograph bottom: Photo by Alastair Muir