This war, known as the Peloponnesian war, took place from 431-404 BCE. He was born and lived in Athens, and was alive during the real life war depicted in Lysistrata between Athens and Sparta. The Peloponnesian war alliances at 431 BCĪristophanes, the writer of Lysistrata, is believed to have lived from 445 – 386 BCE. The act of theatre performance was created as a form of worship, specifically to the Greek God Dionysus. Along with being a form of entertainment, Greek theatre productions were also a religious practice. Greek theatre shaped western theatre as we know it today, however, its original purpose was not translated into modern theatre. The Lenaia Festival was one of many Greek festivals of theatre, which contained mainly comedies.

The comedy was first performed in the Lenaia of 441 BCE, in the Athenian month of Gamelion. Lysistrata is a play which was written in 441 BCE by well-known comedic playwright Aristophanes. Despite this, I feel Lysistrata’s rage inside of me as she is told to shut up, sit down, and know her place. I was not a woman alive in ancient Greece. “How do you relate to this? How does this make you feel?”, my professor asked me. War is men’s concern.” (Aristophanes 581-605) We’d say, “How can you carry out a scheme like that? It’s foolish.” Immediately he’d frown and say to me, “If you don’t spin your thread, you’ll get a major beating on your head. Then you’d tell us of another project, even stupider than before.

And if we ached inside, we’d force a smile and simply ask, “Today in the assembly did the men propose a treaty carved in stone decreeing peace?” But our husbands said, “Is that your business? Why don’t you shut up?” And I’d stay silent. But still, we listened faithfully to you, and often inside the house we heard your wretched plans for some great deed. And you did not allow us to speak up, although we were not happy.

Up to now through this long war we kept silent about all those things you men were doing. I came across Lysistrata for the hundredth time after studying it in other courses, so I decided to pull a section of text as one of my classical monologues. In my final acting class of my final semester for my bachelors degree in Theatre Studies, I was asked to prepare audition monologues for my portfolio.

Modern lysistrata