Written by Christine Dolen
Originally published on artburstmiami.com.
Aristophanes’ 411 B.C. “Lysistrata,” in which the women of Greek city-states try to end the Peloponnesian War by withholding sex until peace is achieved, is an ancient Greek comedy that endured because of its author’s brilliance and the timeless truth-telling it contains.
In a place like South Florida, “Lysistrata” is more likely to be produced in an educational setting than by a professional regional theater, maybe because producers or artistic directors are wary of trying to sell a play so steeped in ancient history to their audiences. But sometimes (though not always), new takes on old plays can create fresh conduits for connection with contemporary theatergoers.
Main Street Players in Miami Lakes commissioned playwright Vinecia Coleman, a writer and actor based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, to write a different “Lysistrata” for the company. Coleman has retained the bones of Aristophanes’ classic in her “Christiana Lysistrata,” but she sets the play near a church in a rural village in western Europe during the High Middle Ages (which lasted from 1000 to 1300 A.D.).
So the Greek references are gone, but we must enter the High Middle Ages and deal with (likely) unfamiliar terms such as “Catharism” (a dualist Gnostic movement) and “Beguines” (a medieval lay order of women leading lives of devotion). The former is the “crime” of a heretic who gets questioned and executed in the first scene. The latter group becomes the latest target of the village’s always-ready-to-fight men – until the widow Christiana Lysistrata (Amanda Ortega) steps up and leads the women into a different sort of battle.
Christiana’s Best Friend (Shana Goldman) and her Husband (Sergio Tamayo) are an example of what’s wrong with married life in the village. Best Friend cooks, cleans, takes care of the children, works the fields. Husband, who lost an eye in a previous crusade, asks what’s for dinner. They both enjoy sex – but is that enough to offset the imbalance in everything else?
When Christiana convinces the women to join her in the no-sex edict and lock themselves away in the church, things go swimmingly for a time. While the men walk around in agony (just ask them), the women enjoy good food and each other’s company. Eventually, they start tossing out ideas for things that could change their world: a wheelbarrow, glasses, a more logical market square, something like a coffee shop.
But the forces of men, the church and misogyny are mighty. Let’s just say that “Christiana Lysistrata” doesn’t have the same sort of upbeat ending Aristophanes devised.
Coleman supplies plenty of laugh lines, but director Katlin Svadbik and the cast deliver what looks and sounds a little too reminiscent of a Monty Python sketch (not that the play is at that level), working-class British accents and all.
Except for Ortega as the earnest and intriguing Christiana, the other seven actors play multiple roles.
Goldman is charismatic as Christiana’s Best Friend, a woman who can connect with joy despite her daily drudgery. Brittany Nicholson is funny as the Bishop, a man who mangles Christiana’s first name repeatedly and who takes it for granted that women will obey him. Sara Jarrell is deliberately annoying as the Priest, appealing as one of Christiana’s group of rebels. Stage manager Roderick Randle plays a villager who has no lines, but he does more with zero words than others do with many.
