LYSISTRATA at BATS Theatre, 22 May - 6 June

LYSISTRATA at BATS Theatre, 22 May - 6 June

We’re having ANOTHER war?! Didn’t we just finally get all those troops back from Afghanistan? What’s going on, John? Why are we fighting ISIS? Oh, to support our ‘allies’ you say? It makes no sense to me. “But hahah!” says the prime minister as he pulls your pony tail and reinstates Judith Collins, “you can’t do anything to stop me! 47% of 77% of all the country’s eligible voters voted me back in, meaning I represent the opinion of 36% of all Nu Zilland’s adults (if children could vote, we’d have a Labour government)! That means 1,267,751 people in this country think we should be Killing More Arabs!” Is that really what it means, John? Is it???

BUT WHAT CAN I DO, say the general public, I’M JUST ONE PERSON. If we’ve learnt anything from the Ancient Greeks it should be this: one person can change the world. 2426 years since its premiere in 411BC, Lysistrata has remained the most famous of all the extant plays by the Greek comic writer Aristophanes, because its premise is so simple: fed up with dirty politics and the continual appropriation of public money to commemorate wars that half the country never agreed with or supported, Lysistrata of Athens comes up with the perfect plan to put control in the hands of women: no more sex until war ends!

11-time Chapman Tripp Theatre Award-winners (plus undefeated champions of the annual Green Party fundraiser quiz in that pub in Khandallah) The Bacchanals return with their second show for 2015, their second show in The Dome, their third adaptation of an Aristophanes play, their 16th show at BATS and their 31st show as a company: a brand new version of Lysistrata starring the magnificent talents of Kirsty Bruce, Alice May Connolly, Neenah Dekkers-Reihana, Alex Greig, Brianne Kerr, Salesi Le’ota, Michael Ness, Jonny Potts, Jean Sergent and Ellie Stewart, ‘adapted’ by the company and ‘directed’ by David Lawrence.

Look, it’s an Ancient Greek Comedy which means that it will be funny, angry, satirical and probably a wee bit explicit. After all, it is the play that answers once and for all scholars’ questions as to whether the comic phallus in Greek comedy was meant to be limp or erect. The Bacchanals are no mere smut-peddlers so expect our comic phalluses to be politically and socially aware regardless of their level of tumescence. “Aliens built the pyramids! 9/11 was an inside job! Illegal downloading is a myth!” says director David Lawrence. Maybe we shouldn’t discount the views of 1,267,751 Nu Zillanders.

The Bacchanals present Aristophanes’
Lysistrata
The Dome, BATS Theatre, 1 Kent Terrace
Friday 22 May – Saturday 6 June, 2015 at 8pm
Special $12 previews on Wednesday 20 & Thursday 21 June
Book online at www.bats.co.nz or phone (04) 802-4175

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