The Rockae
Music and Lyrics by Peter Mills
Adapted from Euripides' THE BACCHAE by Peter Mills and Cara Reichel

To usher in the new 2009-2010 school year at Indiana University, the IU Department of Theatre and Drama presents The Rockae, an edgy, rock musical adaptation of Euripides' The Bacchae. The show opens Thursday, Aug. 27, at 7:30 p.m., and will be directed at IU by Emmy Award-winning director/choreographer George Pinney with musical direction by Drama Desk-nominated writer Peter Mills, who wrote the music and lyrics for the show and adapted the script from THE BACCHAE by Euripedes with Cara Reichel, in the collegiate premiere of The Rockae.

In this 80s glam rock version of the classic story, the mortal King Pentheus takes on Dionysus and his female groupies -- rejecting Dionysus’ claims to divinity -- when the god of wine and theater returns to Thebes. The show opens with a long-haired, shirtless male rocker singing “let them tremble to behold me” as if he’s making an MTV video. Mills seamlessly combines the intensity of hard rock with the violence of ancient Greek tragedy.