Lysistrata and the Death of Cupid

For the past several years, Rhodes alumnus Kyle Hatley has been working on a project of giant proportions, and his dream was realized Friday night when his original work Lysistrata and the Death of Cupid opened at the McCoy Theatre. With a cast of thirty-four, Hatley presented a visually stunning show which mixed humor with poignancy, the vulgar with the humane, and the divine with the worldly. Combining songs from the blues, gospel, spiritual, and folk traditions, his play took the audience through two wars, one between men and another between human beings and the power of the gods.

Hatley's work is unique because it combines the basic plot of Aristophanes' Lysistrata with aspects of other Greek mythological characters, expressly gods like Hera, Apollo, and Cupid. Through these innovations, this is no longer an "anti-war" play but a play about the nature of our humanity. While Lysistrata does lead a female revolution to deny sex to the men of Athens as a means of ending a long war, she also asserts her power to make individual choices. With Athena watching her, Lysistrata seeks to end the "gods' war," denying the power of divine fate to govern all of humanity.

Lysistrata's revolt threatens Aphrodite, whose entire existence relies on the pleasures of the flesh between men and women. In an effort to save his mother, Cupid decides to challenge Lysistrata's ability to reject those fated passions of war and lust. The play, then, centers around the power of fate verses the power of individual choice, a conversation we continue to have to this day.

It is a very interesting choice that Hatley would choose to create a piece around this theme (which ultimately sides with freedom of choice over the power of fate) using a Greek play. Greeks were known for their religious acceptance of fate, and that they could not defeat their own destiny. This work re-interprets a Greek play of this variety to assert the opposite belief.
The play is well-constructed, though it runs a little long toward the end (think the last forty minutes of the third Lord of the Rings film). It is visually stunning in sound, lighting, and spectacle (they have a sand pit in the middle of the stage). Their are great comedic scenes, including a cameo appearance by Hades and a very funny temptation scene between Myrrhine and Cinesias. Hatley effectively combines elements of humor with a serious philosophical question.

Sometimes the language of the play seems contrived, and the over-use of expletives causes even of the more powerful language to gain its full potential. Because of the "shock" value of vulgar, language, the curse word often receives the emphasis of the line and sticks with the audience instead of what the character is actually saying. The theme of fate verses choice is also a little over-emphasized. The audience understands that they are being presented with this question, and they should be trusted to respond in their own way.

And that brings me to my final point. I do not know if we do have that ability to overcome fate, and the assertive "We Are Climbing Our Own Ladder" which closes the show seems to reject any possibility that their is some higher force controlling and governing it all. I would have liked to have been left in a more ambiguous state, one where the earthly war is ended and human beings have shown that they can act on their own decisions, but also one where the gods still are revered and maintain power and respect but in a new relationship. What would this say about fate verses choice?