Lysistrata: Adapted from Aristophanes for modern performance

Andrew David Irvine's Lysistrata is a free adaptation of Aristophanes’ famous 411 BCE comedy, especially adapted for modern performance. The adaptation had its premiere workshop performance in Epidaurus, Greece, under the direction of Anna Lazou, on May 12, 2024.

The play was published in 2024 by the Athens publishing house, Kaktos. In addition to the play, the book includes production notes, a brief introduction and a helpful guide to the pronunciation of Greek names.

As Irvine tells his readers, the adaptation “does not follow the original text of Aristophanes’ most famous play slavishly. But it does, I hope, give readers and audiences a flavour of what is timeless in Aristophanes, and of what Aristophanes may have hoped people might learn from his and his countrymen’s experience of war. … The fact that works written over two thousand years ago can still be successfully performed today tells us a great deal about our shared humanity across the ages and around the world.”

Plot
In the marketplace below the Athenian Acropolis, Lysistrata stands waiting, unsure of whether the women she has invited from the warring cities of Greece will join her. She is accompanied by a Chorus of Old Women and a Chorus of Old Men. Both offer a running, often sarcastic commentary on the events of the play.

When Lysistrata is joined by her friends Kalonike and Myrrhine, and by Lampito of Sparta and her friends from Boeotia and Corinth, Lysistrata suggests a surprising, even radical, proposal to end decades of war. If the women of Greece are able to “refrain from the male organ altogether,” Lysistrata is sure the armies of Greece will lay down their weapons and sue for peace.

It turns out that this is easier said than done.

After taking a solemn oath to withhold sex from their husbands and lovers, and after seizing the city’s treasury in the Acropolis – without money, Lysistrata assures the audience, the men will be unable to wage war – the women succeed in chasing away a group of soldiers sent to re-take the treasury. In doing so, the women make a strong case that their household skills are all that is needed to introduce good and peaceful government throughout Greece.

Lysistrata also makes a convincing case that it is the women who suffer more than the men during times of war, since it is the women who lose their sons and husbands, and who are left alone to weep without consolation.

Even so, once the soldiers retreat, it turns out the that women begin to miss their men, so much that they start plotting ways to escape their promise and return to their beds, even if only for a single night.

In desperation, Lysistrata calls on the goddess Athena to encourage the women to be true to their oath. For a while, Athena’s speech emboldens them, until Myrrhine’s desperate husband, Kinesias, appears and tries to convince Myrrhine to break her oath.

Although wanting to spend the night with Kinesias, Myrrhine succeeds in stringing him along. Eventually, when he fails to agree to propose a peace treaty to the city’s Assembly, she abandons him in frustration.

Soon afterward, an Envoy arrives in Athens from Sparta. After an initial scuffle, it turns out that both the Athenians and the Spartans are so frustrated by the situation that they have no option but to give in to Lysistrata’s proposal for peace.

With Lysistrata’s help, a new alliance is formed, and the play ends with a great celebration.

Characters

 * Lysistrata of Athens: Leader of the Athenian women.
 * Athenians: Shoppers, food merchants, young women and men, non-speaking.
 * Soldiers: Perhaps three or four, non-speaking.
 * Chorus of Old Women: Perhaps three.
 * Chorus of Old Men: Perhaps three.
 * Kalonike: Friend and neighbour of Lysistrata.
 * Myrrhine: Friend and neighbour of Lysistrata.
 * Lampito of Sparta: Leader of the Spartan women.
 * Woman from Boeotia: Friend of Lampito.
 * Woman from Corinth: Friend of Lampito.
 * Athenian Women: Mothers and sisters.
 * Sun
 * Moon
 * Captain: Athenian military leader.
 * Young Soldier: Athenian foot soldier.
 * Magistrate: Leader of the Athenian men.
 * Athena: Goddess of wisdom, warfare and heroism.
 * Kinesias: Husband of Myrrhine.
 * Envoy: Arriving from Sparta.
 * Reconciliation: A map of Greece, personified in female beauty.

Plus, for the Proem and Peroration (the optional opening and closing scenes of the adapted play),


 * Patrons and Dignitaries: Audience members filling the role of audience members.
 * Actors, Musicians and Stage Hands: Actors from the play within the play, as well as a gaggle of wardrobe masters, leather workers, runners and assistants.
 * High Priest of Dionysus: Representing the god of theatre.
 * Aristophanes: Playwright.
 * Kallistratus: Patron of the arts, non-speaking.
 * Announcer: Leader of the Chorus of Old Men.
 * Singers and Dancers: Enough for a parade.
 * Satyr: A woodland god with a mane of hair and a horse's ears and tail.

Historical background
Ancient Greek comedy is divided into three canonical periods: Old Comedy, Middle Comedy and New Comedy. Today, Aristophanes is remembered as the most famous of the Old Comedy dramatists and Lysistrata is remembered as the most famous and irreverent of his plays.

Perhaps more than any other ancient Greek work, Lysistrata conjures up images of the prurient and licentious. Yet its main focus is not sexual licence or even sexual power. Instead, it is the difficulty – almost the impossibility – of obtaining a fair and honest peace in times of war. It is for this reason, Oscar Wilde tells us, that Aristophanes’ plays have “more in common with modern ways of looking at things, more in common with the conditions of the modern stage, especially in certain directions – burlesque, extravaganza, musical farce, and even ‘pantomime,’ than with the earlier and graver products of the Greek mind.”