BWW Reviews: LYSISTRATA, Riverside Studios, July 5 2011

Aristophanes, and not 'Arry Potter, is a big call for a school production, but that's the one made by Lucy Cuthbertson of Kidbrooke School, whose extraordinary Lysistrata continues at the Riverside Studios Hammersmith until Saturday July 9. Using Laurence Houseman's 100 year-old adaptation of the 2400 year-old drama of the Athenian women's sex strike's eventual as the means to bring about an end to Athens - Sparta conflict after 20 years of war, the production is brought right up to date with some fine video projection and a thumping 21st century soundtrack - Katy Perry's California Gurls on The Acropolis anyone?   

But the most radical decision works best of all - the parts are gender-reversed. So the women holding out (by not putting out) in the Parthenon are all played by boys, dragged up and loving every second of it. There are one or two cheap laughs (as there always are with drag) but the key message that comes across is the dual absurdity of Athens' war with Sparta and men's war with women.

The other advantage of this bold decision is the casting of Billy Beswick as the eponymous Lysistrata, leader of the striking women. His performance is dazzling in its capturing of the poetry in the lines, the exploitation of drag for comic and dramatic effect and in demonstrating the charisma such an unorthodox leader would have to possess. He gets useful support, but, inevitably, there is uneveness in a cast drawn from all years of a South-East London comprehensive.

One leaves marvelling at the power of drama to develop teamwork, build confidence and confound the limits of imagination and in admiration of a 16 year-old, whose ease in so demanding a role reminded me of one Wayne Rooney at the same age in another field in which prodigies can shine. A year later, Rooney was playing for England. A year on from today, who knows what Billy Beswick might achieve.   

 

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