Modern Bacchae: Putinoika
The muses of Bacchus, the agents of Pendejo, the Putinas of Putin. They all work together in this age of denial. What is denied, usually, is the truth. That truth is what comes to the surface here. When you hear Pendejo say, with such vehemence, that there was no collusion, you know the denial of that truth is the truth. I thought it was a fascinating topic to create a modern legend—like the legend of Faust who sold his soul to the devil for money. In this case, Pendejo sells his country for money because he has no soul… Here Dionysus takes human form in order to make a god of the multitudes. Bacchus asks, If the father became a god, and the son became a god, why can’t I make a god of the masses? He is looking for the divinity of the masses. Pendejo is based on Pentheus, but instead of being a young tyrannical king, Pendejo is an old tyrant. Instead of the mother killing her son in a Bacchic frenzy, we have the daughter killing her father….
Giannina Braschi on the Bacchae in PUTINOIKA, World Literature Today
Modern Bacchae
Putinoika is a modern Bacchae set in the Trump and Putin era.
Inspired by Euripides and Petronius, Putinoika unfolds in three-parts: Palinode, Bacchae, and Putinoika. In a world flooding with collusion, delusion, and pollution, hope not only stands its ground in Putinoika, but it elevates us to higher realms with exhilarating new literary forms, poetic expressions, and a profound faith in creativity and humanity.
In this tragicomedy on collusion, pollution, and delusion, it is Pendejo’s daughter who kills two lion kings, Putin and Pendejo, in a Bacchic frenzy during a hunting spree for the Easter bunny at Mar a Lago.
Muses of Bacchus
Vanguard Theater Inspired by Euripides
PUTINOIKA: A feast of imagination, this modern-day Menippean satire blends Greek tragedy with contemporary U.S. politics, using humor and seriousness to explore the present and future of our contemporary world, doomed for destruction or re-creation.
—Cristina Garrigós González, President, Spanish Association for American Studies
PUTINOIKA: This powerful, funny, profound, wise, crazed book is a wild ride. It is a bomb (a poem?, a novel?, a play?, fiction? essay?, comedy?, drama? all of the above?). It is a meditation on poetry, art, the pandemia, politics, Trump, his wall, the Putinas, the author, Puerto Rico, Oedipus, and Baudelaire. I laughed to tears here and there while the book displays one of the cruelest portraits of our times. Bravo!
—Carmen Boullosa, award-winning novelist
Giannina Braschi’s PUTINOIKA, which unfolds in three parts: Palinode, Bacchae, and Putinoika.
- https://finance.yahoo.com/news/giannina-braschis-putinoika-frenzy-trump-130200896.html
- https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2021/spring/popping-pop-culture-and-other-unlikely-spaces-latinx-author-giannina-braschi-crosses
- https://www.flowersongpress.com/books/drama-plays
- Putinas of Putin in World Literature Today
Contemporary Bacchae productions:
- EURIPIDES translation by AARON POOCHIGIAN; directed by ANNE BOGART; created and performed by SITI COMPANY; McGuire Proscenium Stage.
- Lincoln Center Festival Bacchae
- Euripides’ ‘Bacchae’ is spellbinding in modern update at the Getty Villa
- The Bacchae in Conversation
- THEATRE & THOUGHT: EURIPIDES’ THE BACCHAE + CONTEMPORARY ADAPTATION
- National Theatre of Scotland‘s Bacchae
- Alan Cumming’s Bacchus