Sex and the City

The Serbs played “Lysistrata” at the “Your Chance” festival

The Belgrade University of Arts (course of Gordana Maric) brought the comedy of Aristophanes to Moscow, to the Theater Center on Strastnoy. In it, as you know, Athenian women force their husbands to stop the war with Sparta that is sick of them, and in a very simple way. The ladies agree that none of the soldiers will receive female affection until peace is concluded. Unsatisfied men are indignant for a long time, but in the end they still succumb to blackmail - and what, in fact, remains for them if all women firmly follow the agreement concluded between themselves?

Aristophanes wrote a comedy, the Serbs play a comedy, despite the obvious circumstances of real life, in which the search for peace is not at all funny. There are four Athenians in the play - and this quartet evokes memories of the famous American series. Four women, differing in character and attire, but equally independent persons (their “leader”, Lysistrata, is not a Greek heroine who stands out sharply among the masses, but just the most lively of her friends), represent in the play the entire Athenian female population and talk about men with distinct Sex and the City intonations. They are real mistresses in the city and in their lives, and men are pleasant (or unpleasant) circumstances in it.

Women easily bring men to white heat - without any hostility, with gentle intonations, allowing them to lie with their heads on their knees, starting an erotic massage and then leaving them at the decisive moment, reminding them that it is time to put up with the Spartans. The men are even ready to take the women by storm - and now the actors are dragging an invisible battering ram and throwing completely visible fake stones. But women easily repel an external attack, it is more difficult with internal danger: there is confusion in the camp, and many ladies themselves are tired of forced abstinence. An excellent scene in the play, when the friends catch their comrades-in-arms who are ready to secretly leave the shelter: no indignation, just friendly reproach (even when one of the ladies pretends to be pregnant in her last months - despite the fact that yesterday she did not even have a hint of a belly).

The men in the play are simple-minded warriors who clearly need some understanding and guidance. In shirts of some tunic color tied with belts and training pants, barefoot (however, Athenian women also do not wear shoes), they give the impression of a completely buffoonish army. They proudly do push-ups in their camp, “study hand-to-hand combat techniques,” but all this without the frenzy inherent in real war. There is no desire to fight in them - well, there’s just a war going on, you need to participate in it. And having resisted the ladies only because of pride (which, as a result, turns out to be smaller than the scarlet figured scarves tied on the belt and indicating the magnitude of the heroes’ merits - almost to the knees), they finally make peace and start dancing together.

The two women who composed this performance (course director Gordana Maric made it together with Irena Micievich-Rodić) talked about the war with an intonation unusual in wartime. Which means the war is going away after all. Women - as far as they can - finish it.

Anna GORDEEVA