Get The Last Laugh At American Stage

American Stage

"Lysistrata," an adaptation of Greek playwright Aristophanes' classic comedy, is American Stage's swan song at the theater company's current home.

By KATHY L. GREENBERG | Tribune correspondent
Published: March 19, 2009

ST. PETERSBURG --

Greek playwright Aristophanes is considered the "Father of Comedy" and the "Prince of Ancient Comedy" -- heavy titles for a guy gifted in funny. And if he were alive today, he likely would have loved American Stage Theatre's adaptation of his 2,500-year-old comic drama "Lysistrata."

This summer, American Stage will leave its current home in downtown St. Petersburg and move into new digs up the street. "Lysistrata" is the last main stage production in the old building and it's everything a finale should be: bawdy, raucous, relevant and fun.

In the fourth century B.C., in Athens, Greece, the title heroine (Julie Rowe) has just lost her husband in the Peloponnesian War. She can't undo his death, but she can do something to stop the fighting. So she comes up with a potentially painful two-part plan, which she initiates with an allied force of women from neighboring warring countries. Their rallying cry is, "They'll get a piece when there's peace in Greece."

In other words, no sex until a treaty is signed.

Lysistrata's timing couldn't be more perfect. The soldiers have just returned home for two days of R&R. They find their women not with open arms and legs, but behind closed doors to the Acropolis. And the gals won't come out, no matter how hard the men beguile or beg.

The dry spell doesn't last long, at least to the women. But to the men it seems to drag on forever. Todd Olson and T. Scott Wooten's adaptation brilliantly illustrates this fact with the story set on a timeline spanning thousands of years and several "occupations."

The women's resistance starts in a toga-crazed era, then continues through the armored Crusades in the 1300s, the empire waist garments of the War of 1812, trench coat-clad spies during the Cold War and on to Viet Nam camo. It's not until Iraq that the exhausted men cave in, sign an accord and collapse into the bosoms of their family and "friends."

Under Olson's fine direction, the cast energetically and enthusiastically revels in the play's sexual banter, double (and sometimes single) entendres, phallic symbols and warmonger mocking. The rewrite emulates British humor -- a little sophomoric but hilarious nonetheless.

That's OK. As actor Steven Clark Pachosa playfully explains at the end of the show, in hard times it's better to laugh than to cry.

Just as war and sex have been around forever, it makes sense for American Stage to produce "Lysistrata," the world's oldest comedy. It's a message to audiences that this 30-year-old company is here to stay.