Bacchus in die Boland

Bacchus in die Boland ("Bacchus in the Boland") is a play by Bartho Smit (1924–1986).

Original text

The play was commissioned by the Oude Libertas Foundation as part of the Cape Festival of 1975.

A political satire, the play is an extensively localized adaptation of the Euripides's The Bacchae, set in the Cape winelands (the "Boland") during the Apartheid years. In the play the autocratic (white) wine farmer and his (coloured) foreman switch roles under the influence of Bacchus (or Dionysos[]), the Greek god of the grape-harvest, winemaking and wine, fertility, ritual madness, religious ecstasy and theatre, who arrives on the farm to become a character in the play.

Its first production was to have opened in the Nico Malan Theatre on 11 April 1975, but was cancelled by CAPAB two days before opening and replaced by Faan se Trein (Fourie).

The text was published by Perskor in 1974.

Performance history in South Africa

1975: A first production by CAPAB scheduled in the Nico Malan Theatre for 11 April 1975, but cancelled two days before opening and replaced by Faan se Trein (Fourie).

1976: The first "coloured" version of it was done by EPAC in 1976, directed by Hannes Horne and featuring Paul Jacobs.

1978: Presented by Die Geselskap (The Company) at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, directed by Hannes Horne, from March to April.