ANCIENT THEATRE OF EPIDAURUS, GREECE It’s hard to fault the atmospheric venue or the acting, but this deconstructed version of Aristophanes’ radical comedy lacks coherence Aristophanes’ gleeful, gloomy comedy Lysistrata was written in 411BC, as the Peloponnesian war continued to rage, the Sicilian Expedition had ended in disaster, the Spartans were attacking the Athenians with ferocity and the city state of Athens was weakened by political intrigues. Amid the political chaos, Aristophanes responded with a bold, radical comedy. Denouncing war as an assault on the natural order, his heroine, Lysistrata (“one that disbands armies”), decides to put all sexual activity in Greece on hiatus, with the aim of forcing the men to sign a peace treaty. The National Theatre of Greece’s production premiered at the ancient theatre of Epidaurus, which has reopened with social distancing. The production boasts funky, colourful costumes and masks (by Angelos Mentis), striking lighting (Nikos Vlassopoulos) and an almost Beckettian set design (Olga Brouma), with craters standing for the spheres of dominance of the city states of ancient Greece at war. Vicky Stavropoulou is a vibrant Lysistrata with an indomitable spirit and Stefania Goulioti is a magnetic comic tour de force as Calonike. There is a delightful Cinesias (Nikos Psarras) and a resourceful Spartan (Stelios Iakovidis), with a boisterous comic spirit. Lysistrata is on tour in Greece until 27 September. Continue reading...
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