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Lysistrata

 

by Aristophanes


On tour

Twenty years after the Peloponnesian War began, the situation in Athens has become so difficult that one woman, Lysistrata, decides to take matters into her own hands. Her plan is to force the men to negotiate through the denial of their conjugal rights. To this end, she organises a secret meeting of women from Athens and the other warring city states and convinces them to refuse all sexual contact with their husbands and lovers. Lysistrata and the other Athenian women then occupy the Acropolis, where the state treasury is located, so that the men will lack the funds to continue the war. The scheme is quick to produce results, not only in Athens but in the enemy states as well. Envoys from the Spartans and the Athenians appeal to Lysistrata to compromise, and peace is secured with the help of a beautiful young woman, Reconciliation, and concessions on both sides.

When Lysistrata was first performed in 411 BC, Athens was enduring its greatest crisis since the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. A group of oligarchs took advantage of the tense foreign situation, which had worsened after the military defeat of the Athenians in Sicily, and seized power in Athens.

In Yannis Kakleas’s production, Lysistrata, the most popular of Aristophanes’ comedic heroines, deals with the issue of war by combining political awareness with sex and satire.

Taking the view that the ruinous situation in Athens affects only the city’s men, Aristophanes tries to convince his fellow citizens of the need for a practical domestic and foreign policy. He believes that the important decisions that the city must take must be based on reciprocity and understanding, areas in which, according to Aristophanes, women are better equipped than men.


First performance: 16/07/2010

Last performance: 08/09/2010