Lysistrata in the Wings, at King’s College London

A new play Lysistrata in the Wings directed and lead-written by Kings College London student Ellen Scott-Smith, ghas just finished a successful run at the Greenwood Theatre London Bridge.

AOD Actors of Dionysus with Tamsin Shasha, Mark Katz and Amalia Costa were involved as Executive Producers on the show, one of their outreach consultancy roles made possible from their long experience in the staging of Greek drama.

“The Greek play is a chance for us to engage with classical drama through a new lens, and this play has given us a chance to view ancient stories in a  way that speaks across generations, no matter how far removed we may think we are from these stories told centuries ago,” said Tamsin Shasha.

It was in 1880 that the first University Greek play was performed. As director Ellen Scott-Smith explains in the plays programme

‘There are of course 144 years between now and then that have included the introduction of women to Greek plays, the success of Women’s suffrage, two world wards and the creation of the KCL Greek play in 1953. A woman being the director of a Greek play is hardly a case for the papers, but back in 1877, when Newnham College was prevented from staging the first Greek play because of their all-female production, it would have likely turned a few heads.”

The idea Scott-Smith creates is to set the play near the end of the nineteenth century with a group of students gathering to put on their 6th annual Greek Play- a performance of an original ancient text. However, (recent) tradition is disrupted when they find out that not only are they to stage the seemingly unstageable Lysistrata, but that female students from the separate Ladies Department will participate for the first time.

Through a combination of new material and original text from Aristophanes, Lysistrata in the Wings explores the reinterpretation of ancient theatre and how it takes on new meanings for each generation.

The play performed to sell out audiences and also included  each night a pre-show event featuring leading scholars as guest speakers; Peter Swallow from Durham University, Nick Lowe from Royal Holloway and Naomi Scott  from Bristol University.