The Lysistrata Project

by Toby Zinman

Dateline: 03/03/03, The World.

It was a dazzling idea: Use Aristophanes' 2,500-year-old antiwar comedy, Lysistrata, as a protest against war with Iraq. The project caught fire around the world, and on March 3 there were 1,004 productions in 59 countries, including what must have been an astonishing performance in a Kurdish refugee camp in Patra, Greece, where it was performed in the original ancient Greek, and a performance in Mindanao, on the southern island of the Philippines, which is a battleground of communist insurgents, bandits, Muslim separatists and government troops (the next day there was a terrorist bombing at the airport). In theaters, warehouses, apartments, wherever they could, in Israel and Pakistan, and bravely outdoors in frozen Washington, D.C., with two very starry productions in New York and Los Angeles, the bawdy show went on.

And it went on in Philadelphia in several venues. The one I saw was a hilarious production organized by Julia Granacki benefiting MoveOn.org. It took place in an old furniture showroom, which provided random chairs and sofas for the audience of about a hundred to sit on; never mind that it was freezing cold -- there was pizza, jug wine and good will by the ton. Generosity of spirit was everywhere, from Perry Fertig and Janette Hough, who own the venue, now known as The Hub South, to the donated raffle prizes, to the lively cast who had, according to director Deborah Block, "one and a half rehearsals."

Lysistrata is a play about the women of Greece who are fed up with a war that has been going on for 25 years; Lysistrata, smart and bold, decides to put a stop to the war by meeting with women from all the enemy city-states. They all agree to a sex strike, which brings the armies to their knees. This makes for lots of lewd jokes, stuffed stockings (some striped) hanging hugely from fronts of the male actors' pants and laugh-out-loud battles. The show ends with harmony, joy and laughter -- would that it will this time.

Hats, togas and anything else off to the actors: Sondra Blanchard, Susan Moses (a stellar crone!), Patreshettarlini Adams, Susan Wilder (a fine Lysi), Deb Disbrow, Liesel Euler, Lee Ann Etzold (who doubled as the fabulous Spartan Lampito and the statue of Reconciliation), Jared Delaney, Brian Wilson (you had to be there to see the blue bra tied onto his head), Michael Reid, Matt Pfeiffer, Garrett Hendricks and Bill Rahill.