THE 5 & DIME presents

LYSISTRATA

written by Aristophanes
directed by Kristin Livingston

“WAR IS MEN’S CONCERN” – Homer

Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, Lysistrata is a comic account of a woman’s extraordinary mission to end the Peloponnesian War between Greek city states by wildly unconventional means. Embroiled in a bitter civil war with seemingly no end, Greece has become an epicenter of destruction and devastation. The tides are turned, however, when the bold and strong Lysistrata persuades the women of the warring cities to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace – a strategy that ultimately inflames the battle between the sexes. By denying all the men of the land any sex, the only thing they truly and deeply desire, Lysistrata deftly explores sexual relations in a male-dominated society mired in war and dysfunction… sound familiar?