The Tragic in Pentheus, by Fernando Santoro

Abstract

This essay seeks to reflect on Fernando Santoro's tragedy Pentheus. Constructed from one of the fragments of Aeschylus' homonymous work, its main characteristics are the reception and transformation of the Dionysian rite of sparagmos and, above all, the hybridism of eras and cultures. In a poetic and philosophical way, values of the Dionysian and Nago sapiential traditions are interwoven with elements of Rio de Janeiro culture, without creating dichotomies and/or hierarchies of one culture/tradition over the other. The playwright reactivates and ritualises the tragic drama of a mother sacrificing her own son, inviting a philosophical experience through play. Contemporary issues such as totalitarian political regimes, prejudice against otherness, the erasure and/or silencing of women's voices, religious intolerance etc. are brought to the stage. And they invite the audience to a bacchic-exuziac experience.