Dionysus is based on Euripides' Bacchae. In the original play, Euripides has Dionysus, the god of wine, appear on stage and speak as a character. Suzuki alters the work by making a group of priests speak the lines of Dionysus, thus transforming the god into cult.
This cult of priests, with its communal need for unity and desire to spiritually influence the masses creates what Suzuki calls, a "story called Dionysus." For Suzuki, the conflict between Dionysus and the young King Pentheus is not a battle between god and man, but an altercation between a religious sect and a political authority.
Suzuki says the Bacchae speaks to our contemporary condition because of the conflict between two communal value systems that exist on the same plane.
By adapting Greek theater to the contemporary stage, Suzuki manages to raise questions about our current political and social situation and done in a way that challenges the audience to look beyond national borders. It gives us a focus on the changing conditions of our own lives, as well as the lives of the ancient Greeks and modern Japanese thus illustrating a universalism that is often lacking in contemporary theater. This is probably why tickets for all his Taipei performances sold out before he arrived in Taiwan.
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