Lysistrata
Lysistrata By Aristophanes
Adapted and Directed by Bobby Bell
Starring Victoria Barfield, Carol Crosby, Iyana Collins and Emily Young
Seminole State College, Lake Mary FL</strong>
Somehow I doubt Lysistrata’s fiendish plan would work in real life, but that’s the joy of theatre – we can abandon reality whenever we wish. Lysistrata (Barfield) tires of the endless war between Athena’s and Sparta. But she has a bold idea: cut off sex to the men and pussy whip both sides into surrender. Strategically she has Spartan Lampito (Young) on her side, and she begins her local activism by convincing party girl Calonice (Crosby) and uber-mom Myrrhina (Collins) to break into the Acropolis Club, steal owner Draces (Ryan Sutter) money , and hold out until the men give in or switch teams. Hey, it no worse than any endless United Nations peace debate.
Time lines are fluid, the show is backed with a 70’s funk beat and the young cast dresses as we all believe their grandparents did at Woodstock. Lysistrata is the granola chomping Earth mother in fringed leather boots spouting neo-feminist slogans, while Calonice brings back that hot pants and high heels look us older guys miss so much. Club owner Draces is craven and makes a great toady, he may play his role a bit too over the top but it only supports director Bell’s plan to go for every physical joke he can find. And that heart of physicality rests with the elderly trio of Philurgus, Laches and Bupalus (Ali Akbari, Samuel Gaustad and Joe Hall). They’re modeled after Lenny and Squiggy and other sitcom comic relief types as they nearly knock the set down with their phallic battering ram. To paraphrase an old rock lyric from the day: “You know you’re over the hill when your mind makes a promise your battering ram can’t fill.” I hope the set make it through this shows run,
Bonus points go to the glow in the dark set with disco balls and LP’s nailed to the wall, it was one of the most colorful I’ve seen this season anywhere. Yeah, there’s some speechifying in the middle, after all these are well intentioned people out to change an evil world, but once that’s over and the sex jokes kick in its straight ahead comedy all night long.
For more information on the Seminole State College Theater program, please visit http://www.seminolestate.edu/arts/theatre/boxoffice.htm
