Lysistrata

Aristophanes' comedy Lysistrata, adapted and directed by Asterios Peltekis, is on stage at the Ostia Antica Theatre.

The show was conceived by contemporary dance maestro Angelin Preljocaj, who, through a staging centered on the physicality of bodies and the expressive power of movement, aims to present audiences with an authentic "comic seriousness" and lyricism, capable of defusing, through laughter, entropy, that is, the chaos, disintegration, and inevitable decline of social and cultural systems. Borrowed from physics, this concept describes the universe's unstoppable tendency toward disorder, into which civilizations so often sink.

Peltekis's is therefore a contemporary stage reading that transcends farce, restoring to the audience the most authentic nature of Aristophanes' text. The play, in fact, is not limited to a comedy on the themes of war and love, but rather presents itself as a political and anthropocentric work, focusing on the moment when a society, in full decline and marked by a dramatic lack of a future, feels the urgency to create a new organizational model. In this context, the famous "sex strike" orchestrated by Athenian and Spartan women transforms from a simple marital prank into an act of civil disobedience, aimed at freezing a system and halting the destruction.

With an extraordinary cast of 19 dancers from the most prestigious European companies, a deep investigation into complex feelings takes shape in an ever-shifting emotional mosaic, where pain, memory, and transformation intertwine on stage.

First performed in Athens at the Lenaia - festivals in honor of the god Dionysus - in 411 BC, its main character is Lysistrata (whose name literally means "she who unties armies”) who leads the women of Greece, weary of the long war between Athens and Sparta, and proposes a "sex strike," meaning they abstain from sexual relations with their husbands until a peace treaty is signed. The women then swear an oath over a cup of wine, and the elders occupy the Acropolis, where the state treasury is kept. The men attempt to break the blockade but fail, and finally, exhausted and unable to resist any longer, they surrender. The delegates from Athens and Sparta thus sign the peace treaty, and the play concludes with festive songs and dances. The play can be interpreted as a sort of manifesto against the absurdity of war and its pacifism is very evident.

Adaptation and direction: Asterios Peltekis; assistant director: Evi Sarmi; translation: Konstantinos Bouras; set design: Froso Lytra; costumes: Nikos Charlautis; choreography: Konstantinos Rigos; assistant set and costume designer: Danai Pana; singer: Korina Legaki.

With Asterios Peltekis, Korina Legaki, Iordanis Aivazoglou, Antonis Antonakos, Nikos Georgakis, Dimitris Diakosavvas, Chryssa Zafeiriadou, Sofia Kalemkeridou, Krateros Katsoulis, Katerina Kaukoula, Anastasia Kelesi, Thanos Kontogiorgis, Elisavet Konstantinidou, Tatiana Melidou, Dimitris Morfakidis, Chrysi Bachtsevani, Dimitris Naziris,Alexandra Paleologou, Katerina Papoutsaki, Efthymis Pappas, Vaso Pavlou, Panagiotis Petrakis, Christina Petroleka, Marieta Protopappa, Kostas Santas, Evi Sarmi, Giannis Tsemperlidis, Giannis Harisis.

The show is in modern Greek with Italian surtitles.

Photo: official poster of the show