The Bacchae

Company of Wolves bring The Bacchae to Nottingham Playhouse on Friday 12 March 2027, as part of an England-wide tour. It's a solo retelling of Euripides' ancient Greek tragedy, first performed in Athens in 405BC, and the whole thing is carried by one man on stage.

That man is Ewan Downie, who wrote and performs the show. He takes on five roles — Dionysus, Zeus, Semele, Agave and King Pentheus of Thebes — and the production is built around him shifting between them, blurring the lines between human and animal, male and female, victim and perpetrator. It's a physical show, and Downie describes it as a fiery retelling of the original myth. He first fell in love with the story thirty years ago, and that's the one he's bringing to the stage here.

There's a fair bit of history behind this version. It premiered in Aberdeenshire and St Andrews in 2023, toured Scotland across 2025-26, and played the Edinburgh Fringe in 2025 before heading south. It was directed by the late choreographer and creative director Ian Spink, co-founder of Second Stride, the first British contemporary dance company to tour the US. The production features original songs by Downie and Anna Porubcansky, set and costume design by Alisa Kalyanova, lighting by Katharine Williams, and ancient Greek specialist Dr Michael Carroll as creative consultant. Critics called it 'truly sensational' in EdFest Magazine and 'richly, writhingly poetic' in The Stage.

It runs for 55 minutes, starting at 8pm at the Playhouse on Wellington Circus. General admission is £15, with members paying £12.75, plus a non-refundable £2.50 booking fee per order.