In Emily Wilson’s hands, ancient Greek is electric.
Dionysus is “midwifed by the lightning’s fire,” goes her translation of Euripides’ “Bacchae.” The god goes on to brag, of his ability to incite frenzy: “I stung them till I buzzed them mad.”
Wilson achieved fame in 2018 as the first woman to fully translate Homer’s “Odyssey” into English verse. Now Bard Theatre’s production of Euripides’ tragedy, in which Dionysus spurs the women of Thebes to madness and murderousness, offers Bay Area audiences the chance to see her text embodied. Now such fiendish phrases as “the loveliness of eating fresh raw flesh, new-killed,” “I’ll dress them up in nets of iron” and “Don’t smear your silliness on me” can prick our ears live and in-person.
Three-year-old Bard Theatre specializes in queer productions of classics. E.M. Ervolina directs the dance-driven show, which runs at Victoria Theatre, and Wilson herself joins the company for a talk-back on its opening night on Friday, June 12.