‘Come all savage creatures’: Becoming Bakkhai in the south west of Western Australia

McKenzie, V. & Boxall, K. (2021): ‘Come all savage creatures’: Becoming Bakkhai in the south west of Western Australia. In A. Harris & S. Holman Jones (eds.), Affective Movements, Methods and Pedagogies (pp. 142-157). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

This paper tracks affective dimensions of participation in an applied theatre project that produced a new version of Euripides’ Bakkhai, developed collaboratively with artists and a community ensemble in the south west of Western Australia. It describes affective analysis of both the audio recording and written transcript of a focus group discussion with cast and creative team. This analysis revealed that Bakkhai’s corporeal and sensual studio methods established affective relations between participants, the play-world, and the proximate more-than-human world; affective community offered a sense of belonging in the region; and audience affect produced deep understanding of the power of performance.