An Interview with Sam Pretious, director of The Bacchae at Dunedin Fringe
The first question Critic asked Sam, as we sat down for an interview in the sun, was how The Bacchae is pronounced. The answer, apparently, is ‘back-eye.’ The play is an ancient Athenian tragedy written by Euripedes, reimagined for a modern audience by a local team led by Sam. Whilst in some senses this play has been in the works for 2500 years, Sam has been involved since last year. For THEA221, he wrote about transforming The Bacchae into a modern piece. He then decided to write the play, and “eventually decided fuck it, ya know, might as well put it in for Fringe.” So he went ahead and submitted it to Dunedin Fringe Festival, a ten-day festival of experimental contemporary art, which runs between the 18