Poetry on Stage: Lysistrata

Aristophanes’ comic masterpiece Lysistrata was performed in Athens in 411 B.C.E., the 20th year of the bloody Peloponnesian War. In the play the women of Athens, led by Lysistrata, decide that enough is enough: they will deny sex to their husbands until they end the war, a tactic that turns out to be as frustrating to them as to their mates. The Greeks had few language taboos and no problems with phallic imagery. These characteristics add to the startling humor and poignancy of the play, even in our uncensored age. Bernard Sahlins directs a cast of Chicago’s finest actors in a staged reading.