Lysistrata

Directors Notebook
Espen Swanson, Johannes Zodet

Table of Contents
Why did we choose this play?

pg 2

The play text, its context and the ideas represented in the play

pg 2

Influences

pg 3

Artistic responses, creative ideas and explorations of live theatre as directors

pg 4

Directorial intentions and intended impact on an audience

pg 6

How we would stage a moment of the play

pg 10

Why did we choose this play?

We are very interested in the underlying themes represented in
Lysistrata
, a play by
Aristophanes. The play, which follows a group of women who seek to end the
Peloponnesian War with a sex strike, condemns war and empowers women. These are
themes that are easily applied to other situations, and make for interesting
interpretations. The play can be easily transferred to other situations in history when
people tried to somehow end a war.

The play text, its context and the ideas represented in the play:
Lysistrata
is a comedy, which was written by the Greek playwright Aristophanes in the
4th century BC. Aristophanes lived and wrote during the Peloponnesian War (431-404
BC) between the Greek city-states of Athens and the Peloponnesian Confederacy
which was led by Sparta. Greece was separated into various factions, divided by
power struggles, race, varying resources and culture. The war was fought over many
years, and was more often a prolonged struggle for domination by one culture over
another than outright violence on a battlefield. Eventually, Athens fell to Sparta after a
series of internal coups and corruption. Aristophanes wrote
Lysistrata
in protest of the
war, and all that it entailed. Internal conflict, Athens transformed into a sort of ghost
town by the mass recruitment, and more are represented in the play. He exaggerates
certain aspects both for comedic effect, and to further drive home the pointlessness of
the war, representing women, who were often the lowest class and thus undervalued,
as vastly more intelligent than the hordes of men who rushed off to fight. The women of

Greece withhold sexual privileges from the men to stop them from fighting and
negotiate a peace treaty. Aristophanes uses women as protagonists, and as they
capture the Acropolis and proceed to advise the Greeks on their military campaigns, he
also comments on the status of women in Greek society.

Influences:
Inresearching
Lysistrata
,wedecidedtodrawfromproductionsdisplayingminimalismthatwe
haveseen.Inoneinterpretationof
Parzival
,thestagingconsistedofonesolitaryblockon
concrete.Thisleftspacefortheaudiencetointerpretandusetheirimaginationtocreatetheir
ownversionofthesituation.Lightingandactionforcedaudiencememberstoimmerse
themselvesineveryelementoftheproduction.Oncewerealizedwelikedtheideaofpainting
withlight,welookedformoreexamplesofthat.Themusical
Memphis
useslargelyblueand
purplelighttosetaconsistentatmospherethatfilledtheemptyspacesonstage.Weplantouse
thistheoryofminimalismandlighttoaugmenttheemotionsofthecharacters.Mostofthe
influenceweredrawingfromtheproductionsispurelyvisual.Welookedupseveralimagesof
productionsweveseentouseasinspirationforourowndesign,includingthelayoutofthe
stage,thetypeandplacementoftheset,andeventhestagingofactorsfordifferenttypesof
scenes.InanotherproductionJohanneshasseen,actorsrepresentingemotionswouldstep
forwardtospeak,usingtheotherwisemostlyemptystagetogivepowertotheirlines.Wehave
cometotheconclusionthatwewillattempttoreconcilethetwostylesweknowweenjoybased
ontheproductionsweveseen:minimalismandemphasisonstagedesigntoempowerthe
actors.

Artistic responses, creative ideas and explorations of live theatre as directors:

When we first started thinking about our own production of
Lysistrata
, we thought of
the American Civil War. It is very similar to the original storyline, and would be easily
used as the setting for the play. We liked the idea of using a historical event that
mimicked the events of
Lysistrata
, so after reading about several revolutions involving
sex strikes, we settled on the sex strike that helped to end the fourteen year civil war in
Liberia. We were amazed at how similar the setting was to the original Peloponnesian
War. By using a similar real-life situation, we are able to focus on the themes, and our
own artistic interpretation. We believe using minimalist design will emphasize the
importance of the dialogue and promote the thematic elements that we have selected
as important from the original script. Womens rights, the inescapable pointlessness of
prolonged violence, and the cutting wit that ties it all together.

Image 1:
Stage
Concept #1

Directorial intentions and intended impact on an audience:

When thinking about setting
Lysistrata
in Liberia we got a lot of ideas on how to use
color and minimalism as a strong medium to support the main idea of the play. We
found pictures of the current President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and liked the
way she dresses. Because of this we thought about identifying the character of
Lysistrata with a turban similar to that of
President Sirleaf and making her stand
out in a subtle way. She could be further
distinguished with some small pieces of
jewelry, but nothing that would imply any
great wealth. The other women should
also be dressed in a traditional way, but a

Image 2: Liberian President Ellen

bit more ordinary so as not to draw attention from

Johnson Sirleaf

Lysistrata. They will wear long, classical dresses with vivid colors like green, red and
yellow. By drawing from the real situation, we are able to create a sense of realism

Image 3: Liberian Army

Image 4: Liberian men

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that will draw the audience in. The men, who are mostly soldiers, are going to be
dressed in mostly identical military uniform. The few exceptions will not seek to be too
remarkable; they will wear nondescript t-shirts or dress shirts, depending on their
societal status, with a similar theory for pants, ranging from ripped jeans to clean,
pressed dress pants. The women should resemble a classical way of dressing while
the men are in modern functional clothing.

Image 5: Old Liberian war bunker

Wed like to use color and design to create an
engaging atmosphere which calls attention on the
main issues and integral characters and affects the
emotions of the audience in an unconscious way. As
we mentioned previously, part of this will manifest in
Image 6: Government building a minimalist set design. Our first design was
6

influenced by images we saw of the ruins resulting from Liberias Civil War and the
contrast between that and typical government buildings. We thought this aesthetic was
important because it allowed us to tell the story, as opposed to spending time setting
the scene. However, as we continued to think, we decided it fell outside the realm of
our minimalist intentions, and the resulting redesign is below:

Image 7: Stage Concept #2

It retains some of the original elements, like the progression from clean, white, tall
structure on the left to broken, dirty on the right. However, it also is more in line with
7

the minimalist design that we like. Actors will be able to enter stage left or right, and
instantly be recognized by the audience as either rich or poor, powerful or oppressed.
The left-right aesthetic progression also provides constant background tension, which
will give actors a base environment to work with that is more valuable than any
elaborate set piece. The lighting will follow this, and we will use fairly consistent warm
tones to fill the air with light and simulate heat. Orange and red could be offset with
some green, blue, or purple to create tension and vibrancy, similar to many images
weve seen of the Liberian countryside.

Image 8: Liberian farmland

It is very important to us that we do not infringe upon the original intentions and genius
of Aristophanes production in the course of our own interpretation. We intend to direct
in such a way that the audience picks up on the same themes--rejection of violence

and empowering of women--and balance between serious issues and satire. It is

equally important that the setting not interfere with the humor, which be presented in
much the same way. By only adapting
Lysistrata
very slightly and setting it in a very
similar reality, no creative decision can or will dramatically distort the original
production.

Our staging of a moment:

The Chorus of Old Men attack the captured Acropolis.
Stage:
Rectangular stage with five pillars in the background getting more destroyed
from left to right standing in front of a plain lightly colored curtain. Atmosphere is dark,
lit with dark red and orange to simulate the sun setting.
Characters:
Chorus of Old Men, Chorus of Women, Stratyllis (briefly)
While the scene continues beyond the moment weve chosen, we decided to limit it to
the interaction between the two choruses, to highlight their dynamic. The scene begins
with the Chorus of Old Men entering downstage left and progressing toward the center
of the stage. They carry logs and bundles of sticks that are lit from within to simulate
fire, which they intend to use to attack the Women. Some of the Chorus of Women,
who have captured the Acropolis, occupy stage right and some across the front of the
stage, and several more appear when the Men begin to speak. The goal of the staging
is to situate the audiences perspective as not from the incoming Men, but from the
side of the Women. The placing of the Women on stage right, with the whole,
untouched pillars is to give the impression that they have seized power from the Men,

and doubles as a set more similar to the towering Acropolis. While both groups will say
their lines with raised voices, the Men should do so with tones of annoyance and
condescension, which will begin to transform into the pleading that occurs later in the
play. The Women occupy the position of power, in the physical location and in terms of
the situation, and they should own it. As they speak their lines, they should step
forward toward the Men, as if they are peering down at them from atop the wall. As the
Men speak about burning and attacking them, several leave to fetch water. Most of the
lines should be said by a variety of people within each Chorus, though some may be
said by all, simultaneously, if it is applicable. The two Choruses should seem to be in a
heated argument, with lines being slung back and forth with rapidly gathering anger,
reflected also by the switch from long speeches by both Choruses to one line retorts.
When the women put out the fire in the script, they should pantomime it with empty
buckets, and the lights simulating fire should fade. The moment ends when the
Magistrate enter the stage downstage left, the same direction as the Men, with his
attendant.

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Bibliography

Brockett,OandBall,R

2011

TheessentialTheatre
WadsworthPubg

Aristophanes
Dateunknown
Lysistrata

http://www.everyculture.com/JaMa/Liberia.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/drama/lysistrata/context.html
history.com
http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2016381.1417038772!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivative
s/box_620_330/image.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Liberian_Capitol_Building.jpg
http://thebroadwayblog.com/wpcontent/uploads/2011/05/Memphis.jpg
http://maroonweekly.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/11/Memphis2013_IMG_7045.jpg
america.aljazeera.com
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