Lysistrata : Theatre Kraken’s lower body ’50’s carnivalesque culture strikes the right note with this one!

Lysistrata : Theatre Kraken’s lower body ’50’s carnivalesque culture strikes the right note with this one!

Photo Andrew Alexander
Lysistrata

 

Which translation did you use I asked naively because I assumed that none of the team could read Greek.  ‘There are so many …they are all so different, so we used a bit from each of them’ was the response.

What was immediately notable was the magnificent orchestration by writer, director, designer  Don Fex who  kept the 15 talented cast members moving at a ferocious rate, constantly working at a high level of performance plus  the general quality of their acting along-side Steph Goodwin’s Athenian heroine  Lysistrata, all set to lead the women into an angry attempt to do a away with the absurdity of war.   Despite the 1950’s setting, and a lot of colourful contemporary vocabulary, the show never strayed from the essential meaning of Aristophanes work, or at least the way we have come understand it.  A feat of near brilliance on the part of this director who has a definite talent for comedy and who obviously did some very serious work adapting the available English language translations to the theatrical space at the Gladstone theatre.

Aristophanes’ erotic, playfully serious anti-war creation,  was  first produced in 411 BC, but the  universal theme of this work has allowed it to easily withstand the test of  time and certainly no serious theatre company would dare call itself professional if it did not try to produce this work at least once in its lifetime. The fact it still has such an impact on artists of the stage and their audiences, was very clear last night at the Gladstone.  The howls rose as the proud, self-assured bombshell style blond ,  this  1 950s Lysistrata came slinking in, calling her female troupe to assemble before her while batting her eyelashes, and giving all the men the most powerfully mixed messages of sex, anger and defiance. The poor males went into a state of shock.   

A playful little prologue staged by the director, suggested the  more serious turn of events about to take place, as we were introduced to Kenny Hayes original music  and bouncy rhythms , to Maureen Russell’s   flurry of 1950’s crinolines and fluffy skirts, the  team’s comic books style set up as a   row of pastel coloured houses with doors that didn’t open, surrounded by  white picket fences that kept the women well enclosed in their tight  line of look-alike homes. They march in and march out clinging obediently  to their husbands illustrating  how the  quiet,  simple life is crumbling:  representatives from Athens, from Thebes, from Sparta, from Corinth, from the Peloponnese regions   and many more from all those surrounding  states  whose men have been neglecting them for the sake of the ridiculous  21 year old  Peloponnesian war  between Athens and Sparta  that rings bells with our contemporary reality.  This must stop says Lysistrata, and the struggle is intended to put an end to this phallocentric relationship which has obsessed the men for too long and ignored the women’s pleas.

Then the dialogue begins.  The women hatch a plot, and the play shows how they contrive to withdraw sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers until the men put an end to the war.  The older women invade the Acropolis the site of spiritual and financial power in the country, standing their ground despite the furious reaction of the men who want to burn the place down to remove the women.   They all suffer from this decision but it’s the men who suffer the most. They plead, grow desperate, weak and are soon transformed into into overblown phallic monsters of the kind one can see in the ink drawings of Aubrey Beardsley, a contemporary of Oscar Wilde who also made those memorable,  delicate and oh so cruelly hilarious illustrations of the play, bringing much to the Art Nouveau  movement towards the end of the 19th century,  even if the set seems to ignore all that but the esthetic mixture was very refreshing! .

What is worth noting are some high points of this show.   The arrival of their great queen, Lysistrata and the collective oath taken by the women who swear, over a delicious glass of wine, to  Aphrodite, goddess of love, beauty and pleasure,  never to  give in to their husbands  until peace is restored to their city.

The two choruses appear:   the masked old men,  the masked old women who carry on the  confrontation which retains one of the traditions of  Greek  tragedy, which keeps the story going to maintain the  desperate anger of the women and the vicious defense of the men who define themselves as phallocentric warriors.  The sneering city magistrate (William Beddoe) is also excellent as the hateful misogynist,  swearing his disdain for women, inciting the men to ‘attack’ those wanton creatures until they abandon the struggle , even though they are terrified  by these  aggressive female creatures whom they don’t recognize.  The famous explanation of the ball of wool,  presented by the women, illustrates how men should be cleansed, trussed and tied up like ball of wool, structured for peace just as women, so they will no longer need war. The central arguments are retained and enhanced along with references to the playwright Euripides and to the pantheon of Greek gods to punctuate the growing desperation of all involved.

As these frustrated voices let off steam and roar their anger in the right dramatic keys, the performances became angrier and angrier. Carley Richards playing the tough Spartan Lampito, with a remarkable Russian accent and a manlike dark suit is ready to get down to business. Certainly, a reference to the political splits in our own world.

Myrrhina  (Emma Hickey) the sexy Lampito from Thebes, spends a whole scene promising much to her husband  Cinesias  but  giving him nothing  more than a hugely swollen lower part (one of Beardsley’s favourite characters!!) as she tortures him by looking for last minute excuses to make herself even more desirable , thus overheating  her nervous  wreck  a husband, beautifully captured by  the sweating, squealing Nicholas Maillet.

In Aristophanes time actors were all men so the males were identified by sporting large, erect leather phalluses but here, since we have biological women playing female characters, the erect object takes on a different meaning. As the  female actors  became more and more aggressive and resistant, we see the men, in terrible physical discomfort,  dragging around these huge swollen objects strapped to their groins. The phallus  has become a punishment not a glorious symbol of power,  the sign of the male  downfall imposed on those who refuse to accept peace.

https://www.art.com/gallery/id–a3727/aubrey-beardsley-posters.htm

Raucous movements, double entendres, dicey innuendos, exaggerated comic gestures, nothing delicate about this show…it all hangs out but that is what  gives the  mixed  earthiness it seeks.  It is a ‘female’ war and Kenney Hayes’ music contributes its soft caresses, as well as its war-like sounds, its drumbeats, its rhythms that suited the moment.

No need to describe too much. Its all in the staging, the sense of fun tinged with serious anti-war comic criticism that is clearly at the bottom of the original text / But this director has brought it all to life in a most contemporary way.

Don’t miss it but do leave the little ones at home!

Lysistrata plays from May 9to 18 at The Gladstone. Call the box office for tickets: 613-233-4523

Adapted and directed by Don Fex

Choreographer    Brenda Solman

Costumes     Maureen Russell

Hair and makeup             Janice Fitzsimmons

Lighting    John Solman

Graphic design     Emm  Legault

The set design and construction are an ensemble created by all the company.

Music director   Kenny Haynes on piano with Jason Sonier on Bass.

Sound mix       Jason Sonier

CAST

Lysistrata                                                             Steph Goodwin

Calonice                                                               Shirley Manh

Myrrhina                                                             Emma Hickey

Magistrate                                                          William Beddows

Cinesias                                                                Nicholas Maillet

Chorus of women (masked):    Kiersten Hanly (leader), Chelsey Cowan, Julie Kevan, Alianne Rozon, Brenda Solman

Chorus of men (masked):  Roy van Hooydonk (leader), Yang Chen, Nicholas Maillet, Ian McMullen, Kevin Reid

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