Lysistrata
Octagon, Bolton
The Octagon Bolton's 40th anniversary celebrations get off to a bang with this hilarious adaptation of Lysistrata, a co-production with Northern Broadsides. Blake Morrison's new translation of Aristophanes's sex comedy, into northern dialect and rhyming couplets, is pithy, gritty and witty. Conrad Nelson (director and composer) blends an energetic, music-hall-style mix of songs and comic routines to put over a serious message .
In a mill town in today's Britain, racial violence is rife. Lisa (crisply played by Becky Hindley as a straight-talking feminist in a close-fitting red dress), calls the women together - black and white - to persuade them to follow the example of the Greek heroine and deprive their men of nooky and money until they make peace, in other words, 'hit wallets/squeeze bollocks'. They agree to stage a sex strike and to occupy the town's only factory.
The men launch a series of attacks, involving Keystone cops, break-dancing rappers, sassy sisters and upturned potties. All fail and sexual frustration grows on both sides. Lisa manages to rally the women, but what stiffens among the men is not their resolve. The famous scene where they parade their erect phalluses - so often, in other productions, a titter-inducing flop - is rib-breakingly funny.
