“In the name of Cyprus, repeat solemnly: / No husband, no lover, no nookie for me.” So swear the women of Athens near the beginning of Drue Robinson Hagan’s new translation of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, as they vow to withhold sex until their men put an end to the Peloponnesian War. “My shapely legs I will keep shut tight,” they continue. “And though he’ll try splitting them night after night / I’ll not give in when he starts to pant / Nothing but nothing will I to him grant.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
“It’s a supersaucy play,” says Greasy Joan & Company member Tanera Marshall. “And this translation is particularly contemporary and bawdy….What I like about it is that it’s a rhyming verse version. It’s sort of Seussical. And funny.”
Chicago now has 19 readings scheduled–more than any other city. Some groups are using Robinson Hagan’s text; others have chosen more traditional translations. “I think we’re all perhaps participating for various reasons,” says Marshall. “Some of us are actually pacifists….Some of us perhaps do feel that Saddam Hussein’s regime needs to be addressed, but question the motives of our government doing so at this time. So we’re not a ‘singular’ voice in this project, but we’re here for the same reason.”
