The war of the sexes is fought on all fronts in Lysistrata Unbound, Eduardo Machado’s rewrite of Aristophanes’s two-thousand-year-old Lysistrata. Working with John Farmanesh-Bocca, artistic director of Not Man Apart Physical Theatre Company, Machado strips away the farcical aspects of wives withholding sex from their warrior husbands and turns the story into a full-blown tragedy. Leading the revolt against man’s love of war (and mistreatment of women) is Lysistrata (Brenda Strong), a mother who becomes an activist when her son is killed in the battle between Athens and Sparta. Stricken with grief and rage, she is driven to take action against the male-dominated society in which she grew up, a society which exalted war and believed that death was the price of victory. Based roughly on the life of Cindy Sheehan, the mother who lost her son in the Iraq War and eventually became a leading anti-war spokesperson, the heroine in Lysistrata Unbound goes from passive female to bold, inspiring leader, one who challenges not just her war-loving husband but the war-loving values of ancient Athens. When she refuses to bury her son, Lysistrata incurs the wrath of the patriarchy, especially The Senator (Apollo Dukakis) and The General (Vito D’Ambrosio), who want to make a patriotic spectacle out of his death. The General is further infuriated when his wife (Cynthia Yelle) fends off his sexual advances, an act of rebellion that results in him trying to rape her. Lysistrata then calls on the women of Athens, including the whores, to follow her lead and stand up to the arrogant, brutal, blood-thirsty men who have lorded it over them for millennia.. In the original Lysistrata there was a universal reconciliation between the genders, but not so here. The women, fired up by their new-found strength and resolve, make it clear that they will not unite with their other half until war is renounced once and for all. This feminist strategy is tied clearly to what is happening today in the Me Too and Times Up movements. Lysistrata Unbound strains mightily for topicality and relevance: modern slang is mixed with classical language; there is a heavy emphasis on dance and choral effects, and Machado inserts a gay subplot involving Hagnon (Jason Caceres), a fifteen-year-old boy. Thus, one minute you’re back in 412 BC Athens, the next you’re at peace rally in Berkeley. It makes for an uneven, disconcerting production, but one that does manage to make a powerful and heartfelt anti-war statement.
