www.montereycountyweekly.com APRIL 27-MAY 3, 2023 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 33 ONSTAGE Director Laura Coté has wanted to put Lysistrata by Aristophanes on stage since her own college days. The classic tale of women who deny sex to their warrior husbands until the war ceases belongs to the canon of feminism. “Empowering and hilariously funny,” is how Coté, acting instructor at the Monterey Peninsula College Theatre Arts Department, describes it. Now, Coté and her crew of about 30 MPC students have managed to make it even more fun and enjoyable. Initially, the director wanted to bring this modern take on 411 BCE, the times of the Peloponnesian conflict between Greek city-states, to Washington, D.C. but decided—in the context of ongoing wars in Ukraine and Sudan—to shift the tension. Her Lysistrata takes place in San Francisco, where the war is substituted by the war on climate change denialism. “It was a lot of words,” Coté says about pages and pages of Aristophanes’s script that is oriented as a debate between two choruses. The chorus of men became the chorus of climate change deniers and the women’s chorus became the voice of climate change activists. The latter is led by outspoken Lysistrata (Nina Siesquen) who organizes other women, such as her older friend Calonice (Alyca Tanner) and the beautiful Myrrhine (Hannah Latham) who has just married horny Cinesias of Nob Hill (Blake Vogelpohl). “We workshopped it as a dance battle and the students went nuts,” Coté says. It is hard not to enjoy the results. The play is to a large degree a musical, a dance review of the best hits of the last decades, from Aretha Franklin to Lady Gaga and back to older sex anthems, such as “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by The Rolling Stones and “Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer. But dancing is just one layer, and a lot of original language is preserved. Since a dance-off cannot take forever, other debate-like elements were needed. That’s how we get a rap battle, where Lampito (Lexi Williams Jones) destroys her opponents with braggadocio. The rap battle idea was inspired by the musical Hamilton. Audience response has been good— “so far only one person left,” Coté says. “They said it was too political for them.” Because of its spicy subject matter, Lysistrata is recommended for ages 14 and up. It runs one more weekend. Lysistrata 7:30pm Friday, April 28 and Saturday, April 29; 2pm Sunday, April 30. MPC Studio Theatre, 980 Fremont St., Monterey. $10. bit.ly/MPCLysistrata. AGATA POPEDA Lysistrata Meets Lizzo Run, don’t walk, to see Monterey Peninsula College Theater welcome Aristophanes into the 2020s. By Agata Pop˛eda MPC Theatre Arts Department partying before the performance. Delighted, some audience members danced their way to the bathroom during intermission. MONTEREY STATE HISTORIC PARK ASSOCIATION & CA STATE PARKS PRESENT A Spring Gathering SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 2023 11:00AM- 1:00PM Memory Garden, Pacific House Monterey State Historic Park FREE EVENT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC ON more info at www.mshpa.org/spring Mingle in the garden, enjoy light refreshments and learn about volunteer opportunities within the park, education programs & the restoration of California's First Theatre
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