Germaine Greer Makes Stage Debut at BAC
Date: 1 July 1999
Feminist icon, author and academic Germaine Greer makes her debut as a playwright this week when her take on Arisophanes' Lysistrata receives its world premiere at the fringe Battersea Arts Centre in south London. The production opens Friday 2 July and continues until 4 August.
Amid the furore that followed the 1971 publication of Greer's feminist textbook The Female Eunuch, the legendary theatre critic Kenneth Tynan invited Greer to write an adaptation of the Aristophanes' comedy. She took up the challenge but, despite the author performing the piece solo to American director and producer Joe Papp at the Public Theater in New York, the script has never been staged. Now, a quarter of a century later, Greer has re-written it as a popular contemporary production - though one aimed at ruffling a few feathers.
The ancient world is gripped in a testosterone-fuelled war. While the young men of Athens are proving their manhood on the battlefield, the women are plotting for peace in the bedroom. Though the original Lysistrata was performed nearly two and a half thousand years ago, Greer brings a very modern interpretation to the classic text.
Lysistrata is directed by Phil Wilmott whose recent productions of The King and I, Crime and Punishment and The Sound of Music have all been staged at the BAC. Lysistrata is designed by Rupert Tebb and Andri Komiotis, with lighting by Hansjorg Schmidt.
Related Content
.jpg)
