The Back Alley Bacchanal

This project proposes a contemporary reinterpretation of The Bacchae that positions movement through urban space as both a narrative device and an architectural strategy. Drawing from the historical precedent of the Pompe—a processional route central to ancient Greek theatrical festivals—the work reconsiders theatre not as a fixed, stage-bound event, but as a spatial experience embedded within the city. In parallel, the project engages the thematic core of The Bacchae, in which movement between environments—particularly from the ordered city to the wilderness—serves as a metaphor for the destabilization and transformation of identity. This idea is explored through a site-specific intervention in Kensington Market, Toronto, where a sequence of existing urban locations are reimagined as scenes within the play. Actors and audience move together through the neighborhood, transforming streets, storefronts, and public spaces into a stage. Through this processional model, the project disrupts conventional theatrical boundaries, collapsing distinctions between performer and spectator, and between architecture and narrative. Ultimately, it proposes a form of “counter-mapping,” in which familiar urban environments are reinterpreted through layered histories, performances, and meanings. In doing so, the city itself becomes both medium and message.