My big fat Greek sex strike

Author: Grace Duggan

In a continuation of last semester's anti-war theme, as seen in Matt Pepper's "St. Crispin's Day," this past weekend included five performances of Aristophanes' "Lysistrata." First performed in 411 BCE, "Lysistrata" tells the story of the end of the Peloponnesian War. Lysistrata (Veracity Butcher '09), a dynamic and empowered Athenian woman, orchestrates a meeting of Greek women to enlist their help. The play immediately blurs the lines between classical and modern with Lysistrata's use of a cell phone before her Athenian friend Myrrine (Stephanie Strohm '08) joins her, followed by several others (Michaela Lieberman '10.5, Jacquie Antonson '10). The women's entertaining argument over celibacy begins with the arrival of Lampito (Maegan Mishico '08.5) and her fellow Spartans (Elianna Kan '10, Canem Ozyildirim '10). With difficulty, Lysistrata convinces the women to help her force a peace by withholding sex from their husbands. Much to the chagrin of the Commissioner of Public Safety (Willie Orbison '08), the second component of Lysistrata's plan encompasses taking over the Acropolis.

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Inseparable from the performance were the two elderly choruses, both of which stole the show with their comical and thought-provoking interactions. Oftentimes, they proved to be more interesting than the rest of the play. Led by Justine Katzenbach '08.5 and Rishabh Kashyap '08, the two choruses begin in direct opposition to one another and come together by the play's end. The men (JP Allen '11, Schuyler Beeman '10, Brent Ballard '10, Will Bellaimey '10.5, Sasha Hirsch '10.5) entered first, sporting cardigans and hobbling around while trying to start a fire to burn down the Acropolis. The women (Lucy Faust '09, Rachel Ann Cole '08, Martha Newman '10, Nerina Cocchi '10, Natasha Chacon '10) followed, wearing flower-print dresses and white cardigans over the shoulders, stopping the men and beginning their intense back-and-forth dialogues. Even with masks covering their faces, the actors presented fully fleshed-out individuals that pleased the audience at every turn.

The sex-strike quickly drives the men crazy, who appear onstage grabbing their groins and attempting to hide obscenely large erections while desperately seeking cooperation from their wives. This comes to a head in an extremely comical scene between Myrrine and her desperate husband Kinesias (Will Damron '09) during which she runs back into the Acropolis at the last second after several minutes of seducing and flirting with him. The sex-strike brings the men to their knees and the play culminates in the successful negotiation of a peace.

In addition to the intense gender commentary running throughout the work, a number of references to the United States worked to connect the play's critique of war to this country's own current political situation. However, the bulk of these references did not occur during the performance itself. Posters for "Lysistrata" prominently featured the well-known anti-Vietnam slogan, "Make Love, Not War," and a distorted version of the American flag, 13 stripes and all, appeared over the entrance to the Seeler Studio Theatre, where the play was performed. Also, the set featured two overt clues, specifically a globe design on the floor that showed only the North American continent clearly and a seal on the door to the Acropolis that bore a striking resemblance to the United States' Presidential Seal. Characters were grounded in regional American dialects, with Myrrine talking like a Long Islander and the Spartans speaking in exaggerated and campy renditions of Southern accents.

Unfortunately, some of the play's message was lost in its lengthy and overblown ending. At the conclusion of the peace negotiations, everyone moves inside the Acropolis to celebrate. One male chorus member remains onstage, picking up bull's testicles used during the peace ceremony to bring them inside. Much to the audience's delight, the door slams in his face twice before he can successfully join the party. This could have provided a great ending for the play, but instead the audience witnessed a bizarre square-dance ritual that did little to add to the strength of the work. This included the play's most obvious - and perhaps its weakest, given how much superfluous stage time it had - allusion to the United States, specifically a Statue of Liberty-inspired depiction of Peace (Cassidy Boyd '10), who wandered among the rest of the cast watching them celebrate the end of the war.

Ultimately, the cast's depiction of Aristophanes' blend of comedy and sharp commentary seemed weighted toward the funny rather than the satirical, with the audience laughing at the array of intellectual wit as well as physical gags. The erect phalluses sported by male actors underneath their kilts were quite funny, as were the attempts of the achy and creaking chorus members to get into fistfights. "Lysistrata's" clever critique of the effects of war on its participating communities provided great food for the thought for an audience comprised of individuals well aware of the United States' current situation in Iraq.