The Bacchae - Cast
Christopher Evans - Dionysus
Christopher is an undergraduate student in Philosophy and Theology at Jesus College, Oxford. Before arriving at Oxford, he was a member of the Watermill Theatre Young Company, performing in 'Bullets and Beetroot Lips' (Watermill Theatre, Autumn 2010) and 'The Clodly Light Opera and Drama Society' (Watermill Theatre, Autumn 2011). He has performed in several student productions at the University, including 'Chastity on the Verge' (Burton Taylor Studio, Summer 2013), 'Saved' (Burton Taylor Studio, Autumn 2013), 'Blue Stockings' (Simpkins Lee Theatre, Summer 2014) and 'His Dark Materials: Part One' (O'Reilly Theatre, Autumn 2014). Last summer, he performed in 'NSFW' at the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Aside from acting, he is also a keen writer, and his one-act play 'Role Call' was performed at the Burton Taylor Studio in 2014. Outside of drama, his hobbies include choral singing, reading, and watching Welsh rugby.
Ivo Gruev - Pentheus
Ivo is a Magister Juris candidate at the Law Faculty of the University of Oxford. He did his undergraduate law degree at the universities of Konstanz, Oxford, and Humboldt in Berlin. He specialises in international law, socio-legal studies, human rights, and equality law. Ivo is currently researching transitional democracies in Eastern Europe with regard to the rule of law in post-communist societies.
Outside of his legal dress, he slips into a stage costume and lives his thespian passion for drama. He has performed in several plays in Konstanz, Berlin, and Oxford, including Bernard-Marie Koltès' 'Roberto Zucco', Ayat Najafi's 'Lady Teheran', and Shakespeare's 'Midsummer Night's Dream'. He also (co-)directed his original 'Midsummer Night's Staged Reading' and Federico Garcia Lorca's 'El Publico'. In summer 2015 he performed in John Milton's 'Paradise Lost' at the University of Oxford and the Oxford Castle's production of 'Romeo and Juliet'.
Molly Franta - Chorus Leader
Molly is reading for a MSc in Visual, Material and Museum Anthropology at St. Hugh’s College, Oxford. During her undergraduate years at the University of Northern Iowa, where she majored in Theatre Performance, Molly acted in eleven productions and was the president of the University of Northern Iowa Student Theatre Association. During the summer of 2010, she interned as an actor at the Pioneer Playhouse, the oldest outdoor theatre in the state of Kentucky. In 2011, she studied acting at the Theatre Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia. Molly was thrilled to have the opportunity to perform 'The Bacchae' in Greece.
Bo Lee - Bacchant
Boyoung (Bo) is reading for a DPhil in Archaeological Science at Linacre College, Oxford, under the supervision of Professor Mark Pollard. Bo received the MS and Ph.D. in Textiles Science from Seoul National University and has been working as textile conservator and a member of International Institute of Conservation. She specialises in history of dyes and textile and is particularly interested in the scientific approaches to changes in textile-making technologies and the phenomenon of cross-cultural interaction across East Asia and Western Europe in the prehistoric to early modern world through sericulture.
Aside from her academic work, Bo is a dancer and a singer (soprano leggiero) with years of professional training. She was a soloist for Indiana University Campus Chorus (2005-2006) and now sings with Oxford University Chorus.
Becky Moore - Agave
Becky studied Modern Languages at Worcester College before expanding her knowledge of the 12th-century Old French Arthurian Tradition by doing her M.St in Medieval Studies at Balliol College. After spending some years at the sidelines of the City, she now splits her time between working for a charity and acting. Highlights of her Oxford theatrical career include playing Raleigh in 'Journey's End' and Julia Flyte in 'Brideshead Revisited'. More recent work includes the psychiatrist in a radio play adaptation of 'Tristram Shandy' and small but crucial contributions to a variety of TV commercials and feature films.
Brian McMahon - Cadmus
Brian trained at East 15 Acting School and is the founder and Artistic Director of Reverend Productions, a repertory theatre company based in Oxford, where he is also reading for a DPhil in Medieval Literature at Balliol College. Recent work as a director has included Violetta's Last Tango (Southbank Centre; Arts Depot), Tristram Shandy (Radio) and Dracula (Oxford Fringe). Recent roles have included Hirsch in Badac Theatre Co's touring production of Ashes to Ashes, Mr Knightley in ONEOHONE Theatre Co's Emma and Davis Walker in Reverend Productions' 'In the Kingdom of the Blind'. Further information about Brian and Reverend can be found by visiting www.reverendproductions.com.
Theo Chevallier - Tiresias
Theo Chevallier is a third-year medical student at Wadham College, Oxford. He has taken up acting this academic year as he decided that medicine was far to dull to take up all of his time. He has acted in 'Our Country's Good' (October 2014), in which he played a sadistic vicious Scottish Major and a tortured Irish hangman from 1790's Australia. He also performed in 'His Dark Materials' (November 2014), in which he played Pantalaimon, who is the external disembodied form of a 12 year-old girl's soul. More recently, he played the rather dubious and nonsensical friend of the narrator in 'A Singular Life of Albert Nobbs' (March 2015).
Vera Schäfer - Messenger
Vera is a 2nd-year DPhil student in Atomic and Laser Physics at Balliol College, Oxford. She gathered some acting experience in the local drama club of her home town during high school. Participating in 'The Bacchae' has rekindled her passion for theatre and she sees it as a joyful contrast to working in the lab.