Theatre / “Little Girls Alone in the Woods”, Canberra Youth Theatre, at the Canberra Theatre Centre until Saturday, May 22. Reviewed by JOHN LOMBARD.

MORGAN Rose’s play “Little Girls Alone in the Woods” inverts Euripides’ “The Bacchae”.

In “The Bacchae”, female worshippers of the God Dionysus abscond to the mountains to cavort in ecstatic, frenzied rituals. In Rose’s retelling, young women ditch the patriarchy to find community and harmony in the woods.

Adult paranoia about this tribe of women spurs creeping totalitarianism, forcing a group of students to take a stand or lose their freedom.

Rose’s script is accessible for the young artists of Canberra Youth Theatre, with a link between the absurd pressure cooker of high school and the menace of soul-crushing laws imposed by frantic adults.

Director Luke Rogers captures the banality and ennui of school life, with the students as limp and harried as zoo animals, in contrast with the lyricism and vitality of the chorus-like Bacchae in the woods.

The actors playing the students grasped the core motivations of their characters, for example Emily O’Mahoney’s fervent need to express her truth as Alina, or Finn Mehlstaubler’s naive faith in his police officer father as Rex. The Bacchae worked together well as an ensemble, with a sincerity that made their protest believable.

The elevated cage-like steel set by Aislinn King created a provocative atmosphere while making good use of the Courtyard Studio’s limited space, while costumes by Helen Wojitas found the sweet spot between school uniforms and prison fatigues.

Rose’s script paints a hopeless atmosphere through sinister details in mundane conversation, and while it is interesting to watch freedom bleed from the lives of the students, the most gripping moments are the rare ones where a character takes bold, quixotic action.

Where Euripides’ original has divine madness and mystery, Rose’s interpretation has a clinical eye for injustice more like Orwell.

With this production, Canberra Youth Theatre continues to provide a fertile community for young theatre professionals to nurture their talent, with a feminist interpretation of “The Bacchae” that explores the timeless tension between freedom and security, and the frustrations of youth governed by feckless adults.