lysistrata: blog reflection

I have never been that much into theatre before this class but as I read the plays, watch the videos and converse with fellow students I am now beginning to realize the connection between myself and theatre. As I began reading this play l could immediately see that the tone was completely different from the first play we read and reviewed, I found this play to be serious and comical at the same time. Although it discussed very serious issues and comforted real life situations it tackled the subject in a way that would draw you in without even noticing that you have been drawn into The tone of this play was very upbeat and inviting, on an issue that is very hard hitting and heavy. I felt like the way the comedy was used in this play made the subject matter very easy to digest, at times I forgot what the bases of the play was. I feel like the play began very abruptly which was a ploy to immediately grab the audience’s attention and captivate them. I do think that the that entrance into the play worked because it had me questioning, what’s going on here?  This play intrigued me because it was very theatrical and moved along very quickly,

At times I do however, feel that the comedy used to portray the story overshadowed the topic at hand. The comedic lines many times made me lose my focus and I’m not quite sure if this was a good thing or not. With all the comedy and difficult language to follow I found myself going back to re-read several passages and scenes. Since I’m not at all used to reading Greek theatre the use of the chorus and Koryphaios really threw me for a loop, because they are not actual characters but have lines and deliver a lot of important parts of the play to the audience. I don’t quite understand the need for the chorus but it seems to be a very common part of Greek theatre and maybe used as way to also lighten the mood of the play.

Reading this play gave me lots of visuals as I followed through. It was very easy to imagine what was going on and how the scene could be setup. I feel like the playwright used the language and tempo of the play to give visuals and allow the reader to enter the world of the stage without actually being there. The feeling of this play is very open, it didn’t seem cramped in the meaning of space and staging. As I read I imagined the lighting being bright but not too bright. I often read the play in a humming/ singing beat because that’s the way I feel that the lines were being delivered. I was very close to a musical and lead me to question is this where the idea of musicals originated?

 At the end of the play I finished reading with a sense of understanding of why the play was written and displayed as it was even though it was an easy and hard read simultaneously. It really gave me a sense of how things were in the Greek era with relation to the relationship between men and women and the roles they played in the home and in society. Although much has changed since that time a lot of things are still the same with respect to how some men feel that women are to be represented or what positions they are to hold. For instance, the scene in which the commissioner states that he would not take orders from a woman, that can relate to the glass ceiling for woman today in the workforce where men feel like a woman can only go so high mainly because they do not feel that they should or could take orders from women. Although not all the men feel this way many them did and this translates well to today’s world. It also showed how much power women actually hold if they decide to recognize that they do possess power and are at liberty to use it. I think the balance between women and men was displayed greatly.