Lysistrata 1969
The ancient Greek sex comedy Lysistrata is no stranger to reinterpretations. Sex, money, war and peace, the battle of the sexes: The themes worked for Aristophanes in 411 BC, and amateur theater groups love revisiting them with nods to the Hellenic prose and fresh twists to give it new life. I’ve still got some of the raunchy songs and well-constructed tunes from a well done Lysistrata: the Musical! production at Capital Fringe 2010 in my head. “I’m a firm believer in the power of the beaver.”
Set Lysistrata in the swinging 60s? Have the women pull their bras back from the bonfire and withhold their free love—no sex until hostilities end is the crux of Lysistrata‘s plot—and campaign to end the Vietnam War instead of the dragging conflict between Athens and Sparta? Nice angle. Should work great!
But save for plenty of lip service in the promotional materials, there’s almost nothing in Lysistrata 1969 that transports the script or stage to the days of the Vietnam conflict. A few neon colors, some smiling flower pillows, the heroines smoking up together near the beginning, and, yeah, that’s completely it. Creator and director Jaki Demarest devotes a page and a half of the playbill to the genesis of her conception of Lysistrata as a Vietnam War protest. Then she does nothing with it. The concept has plenty of potential that is all but ignored.
So forget Vietnam, the protests back home, and the age of Aquarius. We’re staying in Ancient Greece for this one. And as the modern twist fails to deliver, so does just about everything else.
Lines are whiny and swallowed. Songs are sung in unison—there aren’t really voices in the production that could carry a solo. But the lack of vocal proficiency also means that the tunes are entered into with no confidence, off key and not in unison. The climax of the show is carried by a recurring bit of physical comedy where the troupe backs up the claim floating around the festival that the troupe are the biggest dicks at Fringe. The Rude Mechanicals bring Lysistrata to Fringe 2013 after a run last year at the Greenbelt Arts Center. The lack of punch or commitment to the concept make me long for the day when Fringe versions of Lysistrata really knew how to “put the power in your vag and shake it all around.”
Remaining performances:
Wednesday, July 24 at 8:00pm
Friday, July 26 at 6:45pm
At GALA Theater at Tivoli Square, 3333 14th Street NW
Buy tickets here.
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The D.C. State Players Present Agamemnon
There’s little reason to stage a Greek tragedy like Aeschylus’ Agamemnon in modern times, unless you want to turn the tragedy into a comedy. Or in this case, a comedy about a staging of the tragedy. This ancient Greek stuff, you can’t just play it straight. You gotta have a gimmick.
Theatrical company The D.C. State Players fully commit to their gimmick off and on the stage. They’ve recorded backstories you can find on YouTube and faux declared their play “the best community theater production in Southern Maryland, Northern Virginia, Central DC, Western Ohio and possibly the world.” The director’s note in your program is not for The D.C. State Players Present Agamemnon, but for the Agamemnon play-within-the-play as presented from the character who has adapted, directed, choreographed, blessed, designed, and marketed it, Tonee Bollocks.
The note is a first taste of some hilarious flourishes we’ll encounter as Bollocks takes us through a dress rehearsal for his play (they can’t stage the full production as planned because half the cast doesn’t show up). His method of telling each actor exactly how to move their face and body is a highlight, especially A.J. Calbert as Agamemnon being forced to deliver every line in an over-the-top Martin Luther King-like delivery,
I was prepped from reading a few other reviews for the overly long battle sequence between the Greek chorus. It does indeed take over too much of the play at the end, abandoning the sharp wit of the play. Listed at 75 minutes, it clocks in well under 60, and far too much of it is dedicated to the hair pulling and ax wielding of Briana and Brianna (and make sure you pronounce their names correctly). They commit and nail their concept online, on paper, and on stage too. But just for half of a play.
Remaining performances
Wednesday, July 23, 9:45pm
Thursday, July 25, 10:30pm
Saturday, July 27, 9:00pm
At GALA Theater at Tivoli Square, 3333 14th Street NW
Buy tickets here.
