Can a prolonged state of blue balls save the world?

Aristophanes seemed to think so. In his Lysistrata, given a spunky treatment from Synetic Theater and Georgetown’s theatrical program, a feisty female convinces her counterparts that their only recourse to stopping a war between Athens and Sparta is to withhold sex until peace is reached. Will the penis prove mightier than the sword? You get the idea.

The collaboration is directed by Georgetown’s Derek Goldman, who has produced his own adaptation of the classic as well. Synetic’s influence on matters is keenly felt in Irina Tsikurishvili’s multiple sexily choreographed seduction scenes, as each woman brings her man to the brink before denying him ultimate satisfaction. It doesn’t have the same kind of fully cohesive vision that a Synetic show tends to offer, but still has a fun, mischievous spirit to it.

Goldman’s is a modernized, hardly literal translation, but its ribald, double-entendre-laden script is entirely in the spirit of Aristophanes’ original. Throughout the play, for example, there’s probably not a pseudonym for penis that isn’t eventually exhausted. It’s a bawdy style of humor that is often hilarious, but can only sustain itself for so long (and at about two hours with no intermission, there are definitely moments when it feels like they’re pushing things).