Looking at Lysistrata: Eight Essays and a New Version of Aristophanes' Provocative Comedy

Description

In Aristophanes' Lysistrata, the women of Athens, fed up with the war against Sparta, go on a sex strike and barricade themselves into the acropolis to persuade their husbands to vote against the war. It is the most often performed of all Aristophanes' comedies. It is also, perhaps, the most misunderstood. This collection of essays by eight leading academics - written for sixth-form students and the general public alike - sets the play firmly in its historical and social context, while exploring Aristophanes' purpose in writing it and considering the responses of modern audiences and directors. The collection has been assembled and edited by David Stuttard, whose energetic new performing version of the play is included in this volume. Contributors include: Alan Beale; Edith Hall; Lorna Hardwick; James Morwood; Martin Revermann; James Robson; Alan H. Sommerstein; Michael Walton.

David Stuttard has directed his own translations and adaptations of Greek drama throughout the UK and in classical theatres in Turkey and Albania. He has edited numerous books on Greek tragedy, and is the author of "An Introduction to Trojan Women" (2005) and, with Sam Moorhead, of "AD 410, The Year That Shook Rome" (2010).

Stuttard's version of the play (hovering between translation and adaptation) bounces along and reads well: the mix of verbal ingenuity and relentless double-entendres (some of them added in) gives it the character of an upmarket Carry On film. The book is well-produced, excellent value, and surely an essential purchase for any department or school library. -- John Taylor - Tonbridge School * The Journal of Classical Teaching *