On Monday, a worldwide cry for peace was made with a 2,500 year-old play performed in 60 countries more than a thousand times.
The play, "Lysistrata," was written by Greek playwright Aristophanes in 411 B.C. and tells the story of Grecian women deciding to end the Peloponnesian War by withholding sex from their partners.
Director Laine Conway translated the version shown in Albuquerque and the play is proudly known as the "dirtiest play in history." Monday's reading held true to the promise. Host Jane Blume, the parent of one of the organizers of the worldwide project, said that the event was "making history."
The show was performed by 20 actors who sat and read from the script, three sound techs provided the effects and two Stage Jesters acted out the raunchy bits to the delight of the audience.
Conway's translation added modern humor to the play.
"I wanted the play to stay current," Conway said. "We don't laugh at obscure jokes about ancient politicians." This was shown in the harsh jokes about "Attorney General Ass-Croft" and his love of other men.
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The show was very juvenile and at the same time frightening because it is so relevant to today's world. The show had sex and had humor so crude even John Waters would blush. A main plotline of the show centered on a conflict between old widows and veterans. Each side would take jabs at the other, consisting usually of commentary on the condition of their genitals or the lack of sex they were having. As the play goes on, politics come to light. The politicians are shown as the real enemy as they try to force the women to come back and have sex with them and at the same time try to prove their penises are bigger than the enemies'.
By the end of the play, all the men can do is complain about how desperately they need to get laid and are unable to resolve anything until both sides of the war cover up their erections.
As it turns out, they can't remember why they started fighting in the first place.
The play is 2,500 years old and the jokes were modernized, but Aristophanes words are still effective. The play makes fun of both sexes equally. By the end, the war is called off and everyone goes to a giant orgy where they can't tell the differences between the Athenians and the Spartans.
War is shown as a masculine thing, its primary aim being money and power. At the beginning of the play the men and women are arguing about the fact that politicians don't care about people.
Between the racy jokes and clever double entendres, a very intelligent message was presented. The Lysistrata Project was a very effective example of using art to a political end.
