Once upon a time… Upon a time… Upon another fucking time…
The fairytales we tell are not the fairytales we were told. Although they seem the same, the way these stories are shared and understood continues to adjust and adapt.
In Dionysus Theatre’s ‘The Moral in the Oral’; The Maiden, The Mother, and The Crone recollect, recite and review the tales as they see them amidst banter, bickering, and their own bawdy sense of humour.
They seek real world reflections, malleable morals, and inescapable subversions in the stories we know but cannot always remember. They seek the characters with which they identify most, and accept that with ages they may not remain the same. They seek not new tales but a retelling of old ones for new audiences.
What do we need to still believe that the ending is indeed Happily Ever After?
About Dionysus Theatre
Dionysus Theatre is a contemporary company, established in 2012 on the Mornington Peninsula by award-winning director Emma Sproule. The company was founded to provide innovative theatre for audiences, performers, artists, and practitioners. With aims to bring thought-provoking theatre to the Peninsula, we have now involved artists and performed in venues from all over Melbourne and beyond; having worked with interstate and overseas playwrights. At Dionysus Theatre’s helm is a team of neurodivergent, femme, queer, feminists who draw a common focus on the recontextualisation of classic works for a modern audience, in an ever evolving society.
Given that Ancient Greece was the birthplace of Western Theatre, the company takes its name from the patron of Drama, the Greek god of wine, pleasure and fertility. We at Dionysus Theatre thought we’d produce some theatre and serve some wine, but we might just leave it at that for now.
