Montague Basement’s first offering for 2017, ‘Before Lysistrata’, explores gender in politics, the role and nature of democracy and the heart, beauty and tragedy of both the right and the left.
A prequel to ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes’ bawdy anti-war comedy ‘Lysistrata’, ‘Before Lysistrata’ explores the reasons why women from both sides of the political line might decide to work together in the face of phenomenal political intransigence.
In Aristophanes’ ‘Lysistrata’, Athenian First Lady, Lysistrata, with the support of Spartan First Lady, Lampito, convinces the women of Greece to withhold sexual privileges from their menfolk in an effort to end the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta.
“What I liked about the original ancient Greek play was the wives of the generals deciding to end the war,” Writer Ellana Costa explains. “I think 'Lysistrata' is the original example of this 'pussy grabs back' idea. The idea that we as women, if you’re going to turn us into an object, that object is going to fight back. And so what 'Lysistrata' does is really third-wave, raunch, sex-positive feminism in a really interesting way.”
The idea of ‘Before Lysistrata’ came to Ellana before Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election, however the bulk of it was written after she participated in the Sydney Women’s March.
“If you look at Hillary Clinton’s career, she was a very active First Lady and so what I’m really interested in is, where is this line between having the ear of the President in Clinton’s case, but the leader in general? I was originally interested in the ethics of that, like how much sway can you have?
“What I felt after Clinton lost the election and after I went to the Women’s March was that what’s actually more interesting about this play isn’t the role of the First Lady, but instead the role of women and how women have to come together to try and end something that seems to be going on forever.”
Performed by three young women, ‘Before Lysistrata’ examines the humanity and failings of each side in the hope we can come together for the greater good. The play offers no answers, only hope and dick jokes.
“I think the lovely thing about this play is that even though I have an idea about what this is a metaphor for, I think it could be a metaphor for many more things. What I really hope the audience takes away from it is a moment to reflect on what’s happened and why it’s happening and potentially for my more left-wing viewers, to think about what did we do wrong and how can we actually change it. We can’t just keep blaming the people who voted Trump or saying that the people who voted for Brexit are uneducated. It’s clearly something else.
“I think this play is also quite inspiring for women in general, and I think that all of the characters are women who know what they are talking about and they’re competent. And it’s really, I hope, refreshing to see women on stage who speak about politics without apologising for it. I’m really excited for a play to be put on where the characters are women and they’re strong because they’re women. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to write the play in the first place, to have a bunch of women on stage just being them and being strong because they’re them.”
