Directed by Giannis Kakleas


Dates of performances: 6-10-2010 to 7-11-2010

Press Release

From October the 13th and for only 20 performances, "Lysistrata" by Aristophanes with Vassilis Charalambopoulos, directed by Yannis Kakleas, will be hosted at "THEATRON" of the Cultural Centre "Hellenic Cosmos". The great summer success of the National Theatre, which was performed at the packed theatre of Epidaurus, but also in various regions of Greece, is being presented at the Athenian public for a limited number of performances.

"Lysistrata" was taught in 411 BC. Athens then had already seen twenty years of war, the Peloponnesian War had started in 431 BC, and Aristophanes, having intimate knowledge of war, becomes a spokesperson for peace in his own intelligent way. Having as his weapons sexual strike, ruthless satire and a language both inventive and outrageous, he condemns war and promotes the need for pan-Hellenic unity. Sexual ploys, comic misunderstandings and generous action create an enjoyable comedy, where woman’s ingenuity is the motivating force that leads to reconciliation.

Lysistrata persuades the Athenian women to abstain from their "marital obligations" in order to force men to end the Peloponnesian War. Then, another was breaks out between the two sexes!

With the unique sets of Manolis Pantelidakis, the celebrated performance about love, war, decay, corruption and reconciliation will be presented at "THEATRON", under the subversive look of Giannis Kakleas and with the exceptional Vassilis Charalabopoulos as the leading role.

 
Mr. Giannis Kakleas, the director of the performance, notes:

"Lysistrata was written in a rather turbulent period. In 411 BC Athens, after the devastating defeat of the Sicilian campaign and the great number of dead soldiers, finds itself in the twentieth year of the Peloponnesian War that still rages on. War has unleashed human cruelty, has brought decadence, has ostracized love and has increased violence. Human relationships, therefore relationships between the two sexes, constitute also a war that is waged with different weapons and other strategy.

In the performance the women roles are played by men actors. Not as a parody of femininity and ironic imitation of female mechanisms, as men imagine them to be, but as an invocation of the feminine element that possesses the power to change the terms of the game.

Women are not just the "other" sex; they are not simply the opposite pole of men. They are the energy of love itself that creates, without abolishing oppositions. The "conspiracy" of women to stop the world is a revolution of life itself against irrationality and death".
 

CREDITS
Translation: K.C. Myris
Directed by: Yannis Kakleas
Set Design: Manolis Pantelidakis
Costume Design: Eleni Manolopoulou
Associate Director: Froso Lytra
Music: Stavros Gasparatos
Choreography: Kyriakos Kosmidis
Lighting: Sakis Birbilis
Projections-Videos: Pindaros Andriopoulos
Music Coach: Melina Peonidou
Director’s Assistant: Nurmala Isty
Adaptation: Giannis Kakleas, Eva Saraga
 
Cast
Lysistrata: Vassilis Charalambopoulos
Magistrate: Themis Panou
Myrrhine: Iphigenia Asteriadi
Calonice: Giorgos Chrisostomou
Cinesias / Myrrhine: Makis Papadimitriou
Lampito / Lacedaemonian Herald: Christos Malakis
Athenian Herald: Stavros Mavridis
Head of Chorus: Vangelis Hatzinikolaou
Also: Alexandra Aidini, Michalis Theofanous, Fay Kokkinopoulou, Katerina Lypiridou, Irina Mansurova, Konstantinos Maravelias, Sophia Michail, Agoritsa Ikonomou, Giorgos Papageorgiou, Dimitris Passas, Grigoris Pimenidis, Alain Rivero, Angeliki Trobouki, Maria Tsima,
 
Photographs: Michalis Kloukinas