The Theatre: Lysistrata in Philadelphia

The theatrical capital of the country last week moved temporarily 90 mi. southwest. The Philadelphia Theatre Association produced Aristophanes' The Lysistrata in a manner which, as the news spread, drew pilgrims and pundits from miles around. The news said that Norman Bel Geddes had designed the set; that Gilbert Vivian Seldes had adapted the script; that Fay Bainter and Ernest Truex were in the cast; that nothing so racy, so robust, so surprising had happened for years, nor often since The Lysistrata had its premiere in Athens, 2,341 years ago.

Pundits who knew the lines in Greek and plain pilgrims who did not, had the following colloquialisms set before them:

Lysistrata (Fay Bainter), disgusted by 20 years of war between Athens and the cities of Sparta, Thebes and Corinth, summoned the women of these towns to meet her in Mr. Bel Geddes' rich-hued, towering Acropolis. The older women arrived first, overpowered the guards, seized the citadel and the treasury. Somewhat tardily, the sleepy-eyed belles of Athens appeared, followed by big-boned Spartan women, country girls from Thebes, light ladies from Corinth. Taken aback were they when Lysistrata proposed to end the war by pledging each woman to deny herself to husband or lover until peace should be declared. Because the men had been away for six months, and because the ladies of Greece had normal womanly appetites, Miss Bainter had to use a great deal of oratorical persuasion. Finally the women agreed—with reservations. Kalonika—played by winsome Miriam Hopkins in a most demurely diaphanous costume— thought she could resist for two nights, Myrrhina (Hortense Alden) for one. It was easy for the women to resist the crippled nonagenarians left about town, but not so easy when the soldiers came marching home. Sly subterfuges were resorted to by the excited ladies on the Acropolis. Myrrhina remembered that she really should go home to lay a new spread on the bed, to which Miss Bainter scornfully replied: "You want to lay something else on the bed!" Kalonika stole the helmet from Athena's head, concealing it beneath her gown. Miss Bainter: "Why, Kalonika, you weren't pregnant last night." Miss Hopkins: "But I didn't know it last night!" Indicative of the plight of the men was the piteous condition of Kinesias (Ernest Truex). He fidgeted, pranced and pleaded with tantalizing Miss Alden. He drove his spear into the ground, he waved his arms, he bellowed. But until peace was made, the women were adamant. Followed a jubilee, with dancers, music, lights and shouting united in a single impulse calculated by Author Aristophanes to delight oldtime Athens, and by his modern producers to amaze contemporary propagandists for Peace or Preparedness.