by Tracey Paleo, Gia On The Move

It was worth it just for the orgie!

The Greek classic, Lysistrata, a theatrical favorite among actors and audiences alike has been yet again ‘pleasurably’ reinterpreted and mounted for the 2014 Hollywood Fringe Festival (Located at  Actors Company (Other Space Theater 916 N.Formosa Ave) by the Savage Players in a markedly sexier comedy.

Performed originally in Athens in 411 BC as a comic account of one woman’s extraordinary mission to end the Peloponnesian War, this new version is a very amusing, bawdy statement on stalemate politics in our current century.

While keeping to the plot and themes of Aristophanes’ text, the audience is now transported to Washington DC in the midst of a government shutdown, where warring political parties have brought the country’s progress to a grinding halt.  What ensues is a rampant violation of men’s self-determined carnal privilege.

“She’s mad as hell, and not going to take it anymore!”

Guided by Lysistrata (Liz), the women don’t just refuse to be intimate with their guys.  These women , many of them bored, neglected housewives and ‘widows of politics’,  go on the sexual offensive, wantonly invading the capital, chaining themselves to buildings, dancing on cars half naked and openly tempting men with various devices of erotica, littering the streets with so many bras and panties that entire roadways are obstructed.

The production is not a heavy-hitter, but it is definitely very cheeky and momentarily raunchy without being salacious, aided by live TV news broadcasts and a quick pace that keeps this romp from ever being flat.

Definitely a must see if you can fit this into your schedule. A Gia On The Move recommend.

Running 1 hour