The play, the result of a Higher Education Course held by ERT for actors, dedicated to Greek tragedy, is now presented as a complete work. The director Antonio Latella has invited seven young playwrights, students of the Paolo Grassi Civica School of Theatre, to re-write the material tied to mythology, thus opening to new language. The starting point is the story of the Atreides, a saga which examines the theme of family and generational differences. Fathers, mothers and sons all present simultaneously as characters but all played by a group of sixteen young actors who represent, in reality, the latest generation of those who we can define not only as “children” but even as “orphans” of a guide, a father, a mother, an institution that accepts them, and of masters from previous generations.

The ecstasy of the title indicates an escape, beyond oneself, an experience connected to the divinity of Dionysus, to the theatre and to mystery rites. The theatre plays the role of catharsis, purification. The saga of the family of Atredies begins with a challenge to the Gods, based on the initial gesture of a father, Tantalus, prepared to sacrifice his own son, Pelops. This is a curse for the entire bloodline, which brings into play themes such as the struggle for power, revenge, the weight of guilt, and the impervious preparation for catastrophe. These are themes which the tightly-knit ensemble have examined, producing eight distinct and connected plays, each dedicated to a mythological figure, the majority of which are from Euripides and Sophocles, with incursions into Aeschylus and Seneca, and which also take inspiration from Pasolini and Beckett, and from Simone Weil and Angelopoulos for the final part.