Sex as a Negotiating Point in ‘Lysistrata’

There’s hardly any need for microphones and even less for reading every line at a hearty shout in the cozy confines of the Troy Rep Actor’s Lab. In director Antonia Grace Glenn’s new adaptation of Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata,” the actors all have healthy lungs, but surely not all audience members need hearing aids.

Glenn brings this classic comedy about Greek women withholding sex to force their men to cease warring into the modern corporate world of cell phones, laptops, media frenzy and sleazy talk shows. Yet these modern-day metaphors do not work into a cohesive whole, and the whole production pales in comparison with the freewheeling lunacy and biting social commentary that Culture Clash brought to another Aristophanes comedy, “The Birds,” earlier this year at South Coast Repertory.

Rose Marie Johnson makes a splendid Lysistrata. Athletic and stately, she’s a powerful presence, but her booming voice annoys by its continuously excessive volume. None of the men are her equal, including Jonathan Mundale as the Magistrate, making the struggle an uneven proposition.

Glenn fails to construct the seduction of Aristophanes’ sexual politics of marital love, emphasizing carnal lust. But even this is unconvincing. Her sexually frustrated men with bulging trousers are easily subdued by a pitiful stream of water squirted from water sprayers and squirt guns--hardly the proverbial cold shower.

The opposing armies of men are only clearly identified at the end. It’s much too late to matter. The tension is already long lost between the mixed metaphors and theatrical styles.

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* “Lysistrata,” Troy Rep Actor’s Lab Theater, 1514 N. Gardner St., Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Sept. 19. $10. (213) 769-5211. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.