Review: Lysistrata is bawdy and funny

Latest show at Little Theatre is lots of fun.

Lysistrata
The Little Theatre,
76 McGrath St, Napier

Lysistrata is a comedy with songs based on a play by Aristophanes originally performed in classical Athens in 411BC. It has been handed down to us as a loosely sketched idea that has been adapted and scripted by Giovanni Felipe.

The Napier Repertory Players' Ken Keys production is funny, bawdy, even lewd and is an hilarious take on a novel anti-war strategy, where the women of the warring regions of Greece are so angry with the men for allowing the Peloponnesian war to carry on for 30 years that they decide to collectively withhold sexual favours until the men resolve the differences that prolonged the war.

The women leaders from Athens, Sparta and Thebes move to take control of the seat of government, the Akropolis. This was a society where the men controlled and owned everything, including women and slaves, and a sexual strike was an outrageous idea. It was also a society with very open attitudes to sexuality.

The actors, many young and starting out in theatre, through to the older men playing the various powerbrokers needed a sense of humour to get over any inhibitions they may have had, and they turned what could have been discomfort in the subject to hilariously successful performances.

The comedic edge of the show is the absurdity of the frustrated sexual impulse. In spite of being right behind the sex-ban, the more libidinous girls had to be restrained by the powerful Lysistrata and her Spartan collaborator, Lampito, from sneaking out to the boys who were gathered, rampant with desire outside the gates of the Akropolis. Ultimately, the men were successfully lured, tempted, cajoled and then rejected, but they got the idea and all the warring factions were very keen to make peace and end the war.

So in spite of the collective heat in the theatre, the audience didn't suffer from the vapours but instead were hilariously entertained. A great show, and you'll be home early, it plays for just over an hour.

Lysistrata
Napier Repertory Players
Little Theatre, 76 McGrath St, Napier
Season: October 5-15
Bookings are available from the Municipal Theatre, Tennyson St, Napier.