Aristophanes’ Greeks could make war or make love – but not both.

The ancient playwright’s “Lysistrata,” an anti-war comedy about women from warring states who swear off sex until their men foreswear war, will be performed on Bainbridge Monday as part of the worldwide Lysistrata Project.

Planned as a visible and vocal protest against war in Iraq, the Lysistrata Project has grown in just six weeks from the brainstorm of two New York actors to 845 readings around the globe – what organizers are calling “a worldwide theatre event for peace.”

“We are all aware of being part of a global statement as this play is produced in 51 countries,” director Jan Bailey said. “Aristophanes spoke in desperate times and offered laughter as a light in the darkness.

“We’re doing the same thing.”

Peacemakers

The Bainbridge production began to take shape when islander Kathy Horsley was standing vigil with the Bainbridge chapter of the peace group Women in Black.

“One woman said something like, ‘If only we women had the power in making decisions,’” Horsley recalled, “and I just said, ‘Now what was that old Greek play?’”

WIB member Jan Bailey remembered the name, and Horsley soon found The Lysistrata Project website.

“What I’ve realized, as the number of cities has grown, is that everyone I know could be involved.

“My son is going to the (reading) in Raleigh-Durham and my daughter is going to the one in Cairo, Egypt. Also a friend in Edinborough and a friend in Sydney.”

The 15 people who showed up to audition for the Bainbridge production Feb. 9 brought a variety of acting experience to the play, director Bailey notes. Despite the short time frame, however, the reading is staged, with some action.

Bailey, who has written for “Readers’ Digest” and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, among other publications, makes a directorial debut with “Lysistrata.”

Dark days

The circumstances under which “Lysistrata” was written were very dark, Bailey notes.

The play is set at the end of the Peloponnesian War, which lasted from 432 to 404 B.C. between the Greek states of Sparta and Athens.

“They had just lost most of the young men of Athens in a terrible battle,” Bailey said. “Athens would lose definitively within two years.”

To consider giving Greek women the upper hand in the male-dominated Greek society, even fictionally, things had to be bad indeed, Bailey says.

“Aristophanes went so far as to say ‘the men have made a mess of things; let the women have a turn.’”

Bawdy humor runs throughout the hour-and-a-half-long production.

“Aristophanes was a funny writer,” Bailey said. “The play couldn’t be more colorful. ‘Lysistrata’ is ‘roll-in-the-aisles’ burlesque. There’s nothing subtle about this play.

“But there is a serious purpose here. There was when Aristophanes wrote it, too.”

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Bainbridge Island residents read the ancient Greek anti-war comedy “Lysistrata,” 7:30 p.m. March 3 at Woodward Middle School. The play is not recommended for children.

Suggested donation: $5-$10. Proceeds to benefit Hate Free Zone of Washington. Call 842-6560 for more information.

Find out more about the worldwide Lysistrata Project at www.lysistrataproject.org.