Sex and War on the American Stage

"Klein's carefully researched examination of a variety of understudied adaptations of Lysistrata makes a strong case for the play's continued relevance both in performance and on the page, as well as for addressing complex questions relating to the cultural performance of gender." - Helene P. Foley, Theatre Journal

Auteur

Emily B. Klein is Assistant Professor of English and Drama at Saint Mary's College of California.

Texte du rabat

American adaptations of Aristophanes' enduring comedy Lysistrata have used laughter to critique sex, war, and feminism for nearly a century. Unlike almost any other play circulating in contemporary theatres, Lysistrata has *outlived its classical origins in 411 BCE and continues to shock and delight audiences to this day. The play's "make love not war" message and bawdy humor render it endlessly appealing to college campuses, activist groups, and community theatres - so much so that none of Aristophanes' plays are performed in the West as frequently as *Lysistrata.

Starting with the play's first mainstream production in the U.S. in 1930, Emily B. Klein explores the varied iterations of Lysistrata that have graced the American stage, page, and screen since the Great Depression. These include the Federal Theatre's 1936 Negro Repertory production, the 1955 movie musical The Second Greatest Sex and *Spiderwoman Theater's openly political *Lysistrata Numbah!, as well as Douglas Carter Beane's Broadway musical, Lysistrata Jones, and the international Lysistrata Project protests, which updated the classic in the contemporary context of the Iraq War.

Résumé

American adaptations of Aristophanes' enduring comedy Lysistrata have used laughter to critique sex, war, and feminism for nearly a century. Unlike almost any other play circulating in contemporary theatres, Lysistrata has outlived its classical origins in 411 BCE and continues to shock and delight audiences to this day. The play's "make love not war" message and bawdy humor render it endlessly appealing to college campuses, activist groups, and community theatres so much so that none of Aristophanes' plays are performed in the West as frequently as Lysistrata.

Starting with the play's first mainstream production in the U.S. in 1930, Emily B. Klein explores the varied iterations of Lysistrata that have graced the American stage, page, and screen since the Great Depression. These include the Federal Theatre's 1936 Negro Repertory production, the 1955 movie musical The Second Greatest Sex and Spiderwoman Theater's openly political Lysistrata Numbah!, as well as Douglas Carter Beane's Broadway musical, Lysistrata Jones, and the international Lysistrata Project protests, which updated the classic in the contemporary context of the Iraq War.

Although Aristophanes' oeuvre has been the subject of much classical scholarship, Lysistrata has received little attention from feminist theatre scholars or performance theorists. In response, this book maps current debates over Lysistrata's dubious feminist underpinnings and uses performance theory, cultural studies, and gender studies to investigate how new adaptations reveal the socio-political climates of their origins.

Emily B. Klein is Assistant Professor of English and Drama at Saint Mary's College of California. Her work has appeared in Women and Performance and Frontiers as well as Political and Protest Theater After 9/11: Patriotic Dissent (Routledge, 2012).

Contenu

Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Introduction Power Play

History, Theory, and Adaptation

Chapter 1 Sophisticated or Seditious?

Broadway, Gilbert Seldes, and Pablo Picasso (1930)

Chapter 2 Raced Bodies/Erased Bodies

The Federal Theatre Project's Negro Repertory Lysistrata (1936)

Chapter 3 Cold War Cowboys at Home on the Range

The Second Greatest Sex (1955)

Chapter 4 Spinning Yarns

Spiderwoman Theater's Lysistrata Numbah! (1977)

Chapter 5 Staging Strikes and Trafficking in Trauma

The Lysistrata Project (2003)

Chapter 6 Opting Out and Giving (it) Up

The Uncoupling and Lysistrata Jones (2011-12)

Notes

Bibliography

Index