Lysistrata In Greek History

Women makeup just over 50 percent of the world’s population and they always have, yet throughout almost all of history, women, their contributions, and their achievements have been downplayed, mocked, and even ignored. That is why it is so crucial when studying any kind of history to make a conscious effort to include women and to analyze not only their contributions but the society that they were a part of in regards to its treatment of women. This is especially true in theatre history, particularly early theatre history, where women were not allowed onstage, syllabi are composed almost entirely of male playwrights, and female characters are often written as nothing more than props or plot devices. Just because they are not well known does

One of the most interesting women from theatre history is the character Lysistrata, from Aristophanes’s Lysistrata. First performed in 411 BCE, Lysistrata is a comedy set during civil war between the Greek city-states (a reference to the ongoing Peloponnesian War) (Gainor 308). The war has been long and difficult for everyone in Greece, so Lysistrata unites the women from all the city-states in order to put an end to the war. Lysistrata and the women give their husbands a choice - they can either make peace and end the war or they can keep fighting and never have sex with their wives again. The play is an outrageous, pure comedy with its double entendres and use of multiple, very large fake phalluses. However, Lysistrata is not quite the feminist comedy it appears to

One of the most important woman in theatre history, who admittedly was not directly involved in making theatre, lived in England from 1533 until 1603, during which time theatre flourished and branded London as a global center for theatrical excellence. With Queen Elizabeth’s expansion of the university system, playwrights studied the classic Greek and Roman texts and developed blank verse in an effort to preserve the natural rhythm of Latin as much as possible. It was under Queen Elizabeth that Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, two of the most well respected English playwrights, wrote the majority of their plays. And it was under Queen Elizabeth that elaborate costuming, perspective scenery, the proscenium arch, and more found a place in the theatre, in part thanks to Inigo Jones (17th Century), who also collaborated with Ben Jonson to create extraordinarily lavish spectacles known as masques. Much of what is now almost taken for granted in theatre only came to exist because of Queen Elizabeth’s tireless dedication to advancing the