Theatre review

[aesop_image imgwidth=”500px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-19-at-3.14.40-PM.png” credit=”Photo courtesy Michael Hardy Photography” align=”left” lightbox=”on” caption=”In Long Beach Playhouse’s Lysistrata, both the Athenian and Greek women vow an oath of chastity upon a silver goblet filled with their sacrifice— fine red wine. ” captionposition=”left”] [aesop_character name=”Amy Patton” caption=”Designer” align=”center”] When Greek classics and stuffed phallics grace the same stage, it is hard to gauge what sort of production may be unfolding.
Exhibit D— the Long Beach Playhouse “unsheathes a mighty sword” for its current Studio play, Greek comedy Lysistrata. With humor largely based on sexual innuendos and slapstick physical abuse, this play is poignant and still yields high laughs from a modern audience.
Originally written by Aristophanes in 411 BC, Lysistrata exemplifies Old Comedy, erecting a trifold of obscenity, social commentary and lighthearted satire.
Played by LeVanna Atkinson ­Williams, Lysistrata has devised a plan to end the 70-plus-year Peloponnesian War. Her weapon of choice? Her vagina, and every other Greek woman’s too. To bring the men home for good, she and all the women of Greece and Athens withheld sex while still visually titillating the men whenever they came home to visit. The women from both nations begrudgingly agree to a chastity pact, sealed with the sweet, red blood of a slaughtered wine pouch— the only thing women loved more than sex.
LBPH’s production of Lysistrata throbs with lewd puns, full-frontal nudity and just a squirt of female empowerment. This is not a show for children or the faint of heart. It is, however, a play for those looking to be entertained, with its high volume of laughs and staffed with a widely impressive cast.
Mitchell Nunn, who played Magistrate, the headstrong leader of the Greeks, was brazen in his depiction of his character, except when the women grasped them in their hands, turning him into putty, or a mockery of the male sex.
Most impressive was Lauren Velasco, who played Cratylla, Boeotian and Peace. Not only did Velasco bear her breasts along with most of the other women in one scene, but for the climax of the play, Velasco enters center stage as Peace, with both her breasts and her vagina exposed in an ethereal goddess garb. More than brave to bear all, Velasco was poised and embodied Peace herself.
Long Beach Playhouse’s Lysistrata is running through May. 28, with showtimes on Fridays & Saturdays at 8pm and on Sundays at 2pm. For tickets and information, call (562) 494-1014 or visit lbplayhouse.org .