Theatre Erindale stage 'Trojan Women' & 'Lysistrata.'

Two of the greatest anti-war plays ever written were written about women. One is grimly tragic, the other outrageously hilarious. And Theatre Erindale is going to present both of them in the same night with the same cast. The Trojan Women and Lysistrata will run at UTM's Erindale Studio Theatre March 6-15, 2008.

The company would never be able to present these two classic masterpieces on the same bill were it not for radically fresh and streamlined new adaptations by Ellen McLaughlin. Each play takes about forty minutes of stage time, while preserving all the essential events and their impact in a vividly contemporary but lyrical style.

Euripides' ancient tragedy The Trojan Women was written about the aftermath of the legendary war, as Troy's surviving women prepare themselves for slavery at the hands of the victorious Greeks. McLaughlin's new version was created to be performed by Balkan refugees – Serbs, Croatians, Muslims and Albanians alike, and partly in their own languages – during the conflict that was then still raging in the former Yugoslavia. Though Theatre Erindale's presentation will be entirely in English, the stamp of the original actors remains on the moving script. And though the international conflicts that concern us most urgently have now shifted to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, war is always with us, and women always suffer.

The second play of the evening is one in which the women fight back. In Aristophanes' uninhibited satire Lysistrata, they resort to the most powerful weapon in the world – one for which they boast (almost!) exclusive control: – sex! Inspired by the exasperated young woman of the title, they reason that if all the women in warring nations band together to withhold conjugal nooky from their fighting menfolk, those menfolk will eventually be brought pleading to their knees. And of course they are proven right – but not before they're forced to surmount one challenge after another (including not only an international epidemic of erections, but also their own frustrated desires!). McLaughlin's compact version was written specifically to become part of The Lysistrata Project on March 3rd, 2003. It thus entered history as one of thousands of simultaneous readings and performances of the play conducted as a worldwide protest against the burgeoning war in Iraq.

Guest Director Catherine McNally trained at Queen's, LAMDA, Banff, Vasser, and as an International Fellow at Shakespeare's Globe in London, England. She toured Jewel across the country and was last seen in Toronto starring in Mrs. Warren's Profession. Her directing credits include work for Halton Women's Centre, Solar Stage, CanStage, Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People, and the Stratford Festival. The show will also boast original music by Christopher Dawes, with choreography by Sarah Jane Burton.

Theatre Erindale mainstage productions feature the senior Acting students of the joint Sheridan-UTM Theatre and Drama Studies Program, with the direction and design of seasoned professionals. They take place in the intimate state-of-the-art Erindale Studio Theatre, on the UTM campus off Mississauga Road three lights north of Dundas. The Trojan Women and Lysistrata preview Thursday March 6th, open March 7th, and run to Saturday March 15th. Tickets are just $14.00 for adults and $9.00 for students and seniors (weekend performances usually sell out), and parking in Lots 1 or 2 is $5.00. For further information or to order tickets, call the Erindale Studio Theatre Box Office at 905-569-4369 or visit www.theatreerindale.com .

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