Lysistrata by Aristophanes, Flywheel Repertory Season at Old Red Lion Theatre until 11 October 2025
‘deliciously bawdy humour and a powerful message of female power’ ★★★★
A darkened and bare stage, a large cardboard cannon and various protest signs propped against one wall make for a striking first impression in a small pub theatre. The signs are written in different languages, two in English particularly stick out: ‘Protect the right to Protest’ and ‘I can’t believe I still have to protest this shit’. They are both recognisable and timely, depressingly so.
Lysistrata at The Old Red Lion Theatre Pub is a play about a war, the Pelopennesian. This was a war that occurred between 431-404 BCE and a play that was written in 411 BCE. Despite the thousands of years that stand between then and now, it remains startlingly relevant. In this play, set in Athens, the women—sickened as they are by the men’s incompetence in the face of relentless bloodshed—decide to take matters into their own hands and to end it once and for all. Their method? A sex strike. Their men, as they predict, become so painfully horny that they decide finally on a peace treaty. Then and only then do their wives, girlfriends and lovers return home to them. What ensues is deliciously bawdy humour and a powerful message of female power.
The cannon designed by Rebecca Ward reaches an impressively lifelike size yet is made entirely of cardboard. This deliberate choice seems to point to the fragility of war. A reminder that once all the bloodshed, the anguish, the terror, the pain, the sheer brutality of it all is pushed out of the way and you are forced to reckon with the thing itself, there is very little for it to stand on. Like cardboard, its foundations are thin.
In this particular adaptation we have 6 actors: four female presenting and two male presenting. Though all multi-role at some point in the action, the principal characters are the four women led by Lysistrata. This merry band of four, once again highlighting the relevance of this play, are dressed in costumes representative of different periods. Lysistrata (Rachel Bardwell) in her white dress, straw boater hat and badge with white, purple and green ribbons is unmistakeable as a suffragette: a woman paving the way for future change. These colours of green, white and purple also feature, like an enduring motif, on the other female costumes which become gradually more and more modern. Another, worn by Peace Oseyenum is particularly loud and clear in its reference: blue denim boot cut jeans, a tight purple t-shirt, hoops and a fro. We have the 1960’s and all the protests and rebellion that went with it.
There is much to like in this reimagining of Aristophanes’ ancient comedy. As mentioned, simple aesthetic nods to the plays’ enduring relevance go a long way and when coupled with more outright references to the here and now we have Greek theatre at its best: universally appealing, democratic and a commentary on recognisable themes. A particularly delightful example of this is when one of the actors trills offstage ‘Domino-hoo-hoo’, which is greeted by gasps of delight by the women on stage who cry at once: ‘a man’(!).
Benedict Esdale’s direction is simple and effective, letting the enduring appeal of this ancient comedy do the work. Through simple staging, stylized physicality by the ensemble of six and excellent comic timing the play is translated aptly to 2025. Surrounded as we are by too many senseless wars this comedy is both a welcome relief as well as a ‘sit up straight’ jolt of adrenaline.
Flywheel Repertory Season at Old Red Lion Theatre
BOX OFFICE https://www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk/flywheel-repertory-season.html
PROGRAMME
The Rover by Aphra Behn September 2-6
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare September 9-13
Lysistrata by Aristophanes September 16-20
The Lodger after Marie Belloc Lowndes September 23-27
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw September 30 - October 4
Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe October 7-11
