Preview: The "Lysistrata Project," a worldwide anti-war theater event, takes place in Missoula on Monday, March 3, with a benefit reading of the ancient Greek comedy at the Crystal Theater, 515 S. Higgins. Show time is 7 p.m. Proceeds go to the Jeanette Rankin Peace Center, with a suggested donation of $5 per person. Tickets will be available at the door. In Dillon, the event will take place at 4 p.m. in the Small Auditorium of Main Hall on the University of Montana Western Campus. Admission is free.
For all its ancientness, the play is remarkably Seinfeldian, complete with hot-'n'-bothered husbands in eye-popping pelvic extenders (shall we say) and lusty wives - led by the resolute woman, Lysistrata - discussing spears, tools and a particularly "big thing." ("Is it thick, too?" asks the character Cleonice.)
Well, no. For what Lysistrata wants to talk about is taking action to end war. And in honor of that message - and the unity that drives it - hundreds of actors in more than 43 countries will offer readings of "Lysistrata" March 3 as part of the first-ever worldwide theater event for peace. To date, more than 756 readings are slated in protest of the impending war on Iraq, with performances everywhere from Lebanon and Israel to Cambodia, China and Iceland.
In this country, groups from every state are hosting what "Lysistrata Project" founders call "theatrical acts of dissent," including readings at the Crystal Theater in Missoula, at the University of Montana Western College in Dillon and at the Omi Preheim Church in Billings.
"It's a way to show solidarity with the rest of the world," says Shaun Gant, producer and narrator of the Missoula reading. "It's so important to have a peace action where the people involved, and the audience watching, feel like they're participating in something positive - something that helps them feel less powerless."
It also helps that the play is funny, particularly with the modernized translation Gant is using.
"It's humor as mediation," says the Missoula playwright and poet. And humor helps people loosen up, open up and question. "This doesn't have to be a head-on-head, 'I'm right-you're wrong' situation," Gant says. "There are alternatives."
Peaceful alternatives were what New York actresses Kathryn Blume and Sharron Bower were looking for in January. With the U.S. increasingly prepped for battle on Iraq, Blume was thinking of doing a "Lysistrata" reading as part of an action for the group "Theaters Against War" (THAW). She shared the idea with Bower, and the two women began imagining several readings, or hundreds of readings. They posted the idea on a Web site (http://www.lysistrataproject.org). Emails flooded in. And day by day, the project grew.
So did the interest from Hollywood. At a Los Angeles reading, actresses Julie Christie and Christine Lahti (among others) will perform; John Densmore of the Doors will play percussion. In New York City, dozens of actors and directors will read the play in public spaces throughout the day, capped by an all-star reading in Brooklyn featuring F. Murray Abraham and Kevin Bacon.
In Missoula, meanwhile, Anita Doyle heard about the project and went straight to the phones to organize. The director of the Jeanette Rankin Peace Center called Gant and other Missoula artists, activists and performers, and soon a committee was formed, including Carla Abrams, Romy LeClaire, Kat Hawkins and Ann Johnson. The Crystal Theater signed on as a venue; volunteers signed on to help. Videotapes of the readings will be used in a future documentary, so Missoula Community Access Television crews volunteered to film the event, as well.
In the end, says Gant, the play is about true power. In the ancient drama, at least, it came from withholding and sacrifice. The women can barely stand the celibacy; they're constantly on the verge of caving. ("I will not do it! Let the war go on!" cries the bereft Cleonice.)
But in the end, saying no saves the nation. (It also helps that the women seize the Acropolis, where the public money sits, effectively shutting off the men's cash flow.)
"Why have you barred our gates?" a Magistrate asks Lysistrata.
"No more money, no more war," she replies.
Today, seizing the Acropolis to wage peace, metaphoric or otherwise, would be near-impossible. But it's always possible, says Gant, to take a stand.
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