Sex and War on the American Stage: Lysistrata in Performance, 1930-2012 by Emily B. Klein (review)

In her study that focuses on productions of Lysistrata on the American stage, Emily Klein seeks “to track changes in popular thinking about war and feminism over the course of the last hundred years” (142). Klein explores how various directors and/or adaptors wrestled with two seminal questions about Aristophanes’ classic work: Is the eponymous heroine a feminist? Is this Greek comedy a pacifist play? (142). In analyzing how specific past productions have interpreted this ancient play, Klein successfully demonstrates how each has reflected the larger cultural tensions present in the milieu and refracted views on class, race, war, feminism, sexuality, and political agency. Instead of indexing every professional stage production (which would have likely resulted in something more akin to an overview that lacked substance), Klein devotes each chapter to an in-depth analysis of a notable and distinctive American production of Lysistrata since 1930. Klein employs a variety of theoretical lenses, including trauma, feminism, and performance, and she interacts with the work of theorists such as Judith Butler, Jane Desmond, Patricia Yaeger, Sander Gilman, and Diana Taylor, to name a few.

Klein considers a variety of Lysistrata incarnations. She includes traditional stage productions, such as Gilbert Seldes’ Depression-era adaptation (1930) that was famously shut down for public indecency, but was nonetheless successful. She contrasts his adaptation with the Federal Theater Project/Seattle Negro Repertory production (1936), noting that the two “could not be more different in terms of scripts, musical score, choreography, financial backing, casting, or reception” (43). The FTP also suffered similar charges of obscenity, which were surely an excuse to cloak the real issues of ongoing racial prejudice and oppression. Musical versions include Hollywood’s The Second Greatest Sex (1955), a postwar adaptation that was a hybrid of two influential cinematic genres (the Western and the musical), and Lysistrata Jones (2011), the short-lived Broadway production. A performance studies understanding of a “text” as being anything that can be read and interpreted (89) is especially pertinent in her analysis of Spiderwoman’s Lysistrata Numbah! (1977), as well as in allowing her to also consider a novel, The Uncoupling (2011). It would seem impossible not to include The Lysistrata Project (2003), the international phenomenon that resulted in over one thousand productions around the globe, and in Klein’s study, she addresses questions of political efficacy and dissent as well issues of transmission and victimization when publicizing private traumas to incite action. As a whole, this somewhat eclectic approach to American Lysistrata productions is productive, as each chapter progresses chronologically and reveals the unique struggles and problems of a historical moment, with a Greek play as a constant, yet changing text.

In each chapter, Klein situates the production in its relevant historical-socio-political context. Depending on the production, greater emphasis is placed on some aspects than others. For instance, in the chapter that looks at The Second Greatest Sex, Klein contextualizes the film by explaining how it exists within the Western film genre. In turn, she also explicates how the Western film genre is a response to a crisis in American masculinity in post-World War II culture. Klein then explores in more depth how this hybrid Western-Musical film, inspired by a play that is often considered proto-feminist and pacifist, was quite conservative. Against the backdrop of a conflict in which the stakes are low and have no real consequences, the film’s message only served to re-inscribe heterosexual cultural norms. Paradoxically, the film depicts women who act out and take a stand only because they want to occupy the decorative, feminine roles, but cannot do so effectively due to the absence of men (who are away fighting). Klein employed pertinent excerpts from the dialogue and lyrics and analyzed the film’s mise-en-scène, augmenting with publicity material and photos from the film. These strategies, coupled with...