Kathryn Blume's 'Lysistrata' Project
NPR's Michele Norris talks with Kathryn Blume, co-founder of The
Lysistrata Project, a coordinated schedule of world-wide readings
of the play Lysistrata on March 3, 2003. The ancient Greek play tells
the story of a woman who organizes a stand against war, getting women
on both sides of a conflict to withhold sex from their husbands until
the men agree to sign a peace treaty. She hopes the readings will
mobilize an international theatrical voice against the Bush administration's
war on Iraq.
Democracy Now - Report on the Lysistrata Project.
On March 3, 2003 over 1000 readings of the ancient Greek anti-war
comedy, Lysistrata, were held in 59 countries and every state in the
U.S. as a way for actors the world over to register their opposition
to a war on Iraq. Conceived just 6 weeks ago, by New York actors Kathryn
Blume and Sharron Bower, the global theatrical anti-war protest will
raise money for humanitarian aid groups working in the Middle East.
There are events in Russia, China and in the jungle in Hawaii, in
Athens and in Iceland, at homemakers' reading groups in the Midwest
and on sidewalks and subway platforms, parks and theaters, high schools,
churches and bars.
Lysistrata tells the story of women from opposing states who unite
to end a war by refusing to sleep with their men until they agree
to lay down their swords. Powerless in their society, with too many
of their sons and husbands being slaughtered in battle, the women
take the only tactic available to them: a sex strike.
Fast-forward 2,400 years: swords are now weapons of mass destruction.
Faced with the prospect of massive loss of human life -- both Iraqi
and American -- Lysistrata Project participants worldwide take a new
tactic and add their voices to the mounting clamor of global antiwar
protests.