Make Love, Not War – Or Else

Try this fantasy on for size: Laura Bush comes to her senses, realizes that war is hell and refuses to sleep with her husband until he gives up his warmongering ways. His libido running rampant, Bush agrees to make peace with Iraq and the wheels of war are brought to a grinding halt.

Nice fantasy. If only Laura Bush could be more like the eponymous heroine of Aristophanes' antiwar comedy "Lysistrata," who uses this sex-for-peace strategy with great success. Lysistrata encourages women from opposing sides of a civil war to withhold sex from their husbands until the men, conquered by unrequited lust, agree to ratify a peace treaty. The play captured the imagination of two New York actors, Kathryn Blume and Sharron Bower, who in early January kicked off the Lysistrata Project, a series of readings of the play that will take place throughout the world (in all 50 states, and 59 countries so far) on Monday, March 3.

"We would love for no one to live their life on March 3rd without running into Lysistrata," Bower told the Village Voice. The way the readings are proliferating, it will be hard to walk five feet without tripping over Lysistrata. The number of performances and cities involved are increasing hourly; there are now 1,004 scheduled readings, a joyous Greek chorus of dissent that would have astonished and gratified Aristophanes, who spent most of his life writing political satire that challenged the imperialism of the Athenian state.

The Lysistrata events range from regional theater companies to experimental street theater to readings in private homes, libraries, hospitals and college campuses. Anyone is welcome to stage a reading using one of the dozens of translations of the play available; this theatrical protest aims to be as inclusive as possible.

All-star evening performances are scheduled on the east and west coasts. In New York, Mercedes Ruehl, F. Murray Abraham, Peter Boyle and Kyra Sedgwick and husband Kevin Bacon perform; and in Los Angeles, Julie Christie reads the part of Lysistrata in a production that includes Alfre Woodard, Christine Lahti, Ed Begley Jr. and Eric Stolz. "At least for the record of history, we have to let it be known that millions and millions opposed this war," Julie Christie said.

Throwing a Lyssy Fit

Those who equate classical Greek theater with watching paint dry should know that "Lysistrata," like most of Aristophanes' work, is outrageously bawdy and rife with sexual innuendo (the actors are usually outfitted with leather phalluses to give them the appearance of enormous erections).

Lysistrata herself is a literary heroine who translates remarkably well to the modern era, considering she was created during the Peloponnesian War. Courageous, creative and sassy, she's equal parts Xena the Warrior Princess, Gloria Steinem and Erin Brockovich. Not only do Lysistrata and the Greek women in the play withhold sex – effectively spearheading a 2,500-year-old tradition of peaceful resistance to war – they take over the Acropolis (the city treasury), barring the men access to those other precious chests – their war chests.

Not that the women make their sacrifice willingly. "Who'd have thought we'd come to this, kicking our men out of our beds, just when we want to drag them back in!" wails Lysistrata's Spartan homegirl Lampito (in a translation by Carolyn Balducci).

Purrs Lysistrata (in a different translation): "We need only sit indoors with painted cheeks, and meet our mates lightly clad in transparent gowns of Amorgos silk, and perfectly depilated; they will get their tools up and be wild to lie with us. That will be the time to refuse, and they will hasten to make peace, I am convinced of that!"

That the Lysistrata Project so quickly grew into an international event suggests a collective hunger for more imaginative and diverse forms of antiwar expression.