Summary

"Pinplay" is a chapbook that, as the title implies, presents "A Version" of Euripides' most famous piece of tragic theatre: "the Bacchae." "Pinplay" therefore takes the form of stage play, replete with a cast of characters including Dionysos, Pentheus, Agave, the Citizens of Thebes, and a Chorus — all figures from Euripides' original. Because this chapbook owes much to attic drama, before summarizing Carson's "Pinplay," it is important to make a brief detour into describing both the form of Greek theatre, and the play around which this chapbook is based.

Attic drama describes the genre of theatre put forth by tragedians during the Hellenistic period, and it involves a number of clearly defined tropes, the most important of which — for the purpose of this Study Guide, at least — is its cast. Works of attic drama have notoriously small dramatic personae...