NTID Theatre History: Lysistrata: 1975

Lysistrata: A comedy by Aristophanes, Poster

In 411 B.C., the cities of Greece were at war. Athens and Sparta were battling. To show the Greeks how foolish the war was, Aristophanes presented his play Lysistrata. The play's central theme is "make love, not war." At the beginning of the play, the character Lysistrata calls together women representatives of the fighting cities. She suggests that to get their men back home and to stop the war, the women must "abstain." Once the women agree to join Lysistrata and swear an oath to abstain, they capture the Tresury on the Acropolis hill. Lysistrata knows she can slow down the war if she stops the money. Soon, she confronts the Magistrate, who is in charge of buying war machinery, and she suggests that money is the cause of war and that men misuse money by sending other men to war. The Magistrate refuses to listen to the opposite sex, so the women dress up the men to look like women and make them all equal. Lysistrata's plan soon begins to work. The men are desperate for their wives. Unfortunately for the plan, the women are also desperate for their husbands, and they try to leave the Acropolis. One desperate man tries to force his wife to go home with him, but she refuses until he agrees to make peace. When an enemy messenger arrives from Sparta to say that the Spartan men want their wives to return home, they agree that they must discuss peace terms. Lysistrata decides to make sure the men will understand their choice, so she brings the men her version of "Peace."