Sexual revolution with a twist
Burgundy Code, Kirsten Howell and Alexis Milligan star in Two Planks and a Passion's Lysistrata, Temptress of the South. (LINDSEY CORY)
THE WOMEN OF LYSISTRATA have a unique way of trying to bring about peace.
“They decide to withhold sex until the war is stopped," says Burgandy Code, who is starring in the title role in the outdoor production by Two Planks and a Passion Theatre.
Previews begin tonight and it opens Saturday.
Based on a 2,500-year-old play by Aristophanes, Lysistrata has been adapted by Two Planks artistic director Ken Schwartz and set during the American Civil War.
It features original music and lyrics by Allen Cole, who also created the multi-Merritt Award-winning musical Rockbound, staged by Two Planks in 2009.
“More American men died in that war than in the First and Second World Wars combined," Code says by phone from Ross Creek Centre for the Arts near Canning, where she is taking a break from rehearsals in a sunny buttercup-filled field.
“The numbers were staggering. It had a kind of senselessness to it. The division was ideological, not geographic. The (officers) trained at the same military colleges, then led separate armies against each other."
In Lysistrata, the women of one river valley refuse to let the men come near them until the war is stopped, says Code.
“The American Civil War was brutal.
“This play is like magical realism, ‘if only this could have happened.’ " This is Code’s sixth summer at Ross Creek. She has been part of every production since The Odyssey in 2007, Two Plank’s inaugural outdoor show.
“I was pregnant that first show," recalls Code, who is married to Ryan Rogerson, appearing in Lysistrata as the mayor.
The two met at Festival Antigonish doing Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie.
“Our daughter, Ella Mary Tulip, has been on the mountain her whole life. We live in Toronto 11 months a year, and we look forward to being in the country."
The nine-member Two Planks company consists almost entirely of couples.
Besides Code and Rogerson, Chris O’Neill, who plays Myrrhine, is married to Schwartz, who is directing the play. Jamie Konchak (Stratyllis) and Graham Percy (The Captain) and Alexis Milligan (Calonice) and Jeff Schwager (soldier, Cinesias) are also couples.
Code says being a mother helps her relate to her character.
“The war has been going on for four years when her son is called to duty. She has an epiphany that this can’t keep going on. Because it’s personal, she’s inspired to act."
But Lysistrata has to get the other women onside and the upper-class Southern women of that era have defined roles and are not used to behaving in that way, notes Code, who loves speaking with the accent’s “pretty little cadence."
“The women take over the bank so the men can’t get money for the war. They occupy the armouries so they can’t get weapons, and won’t sleep with the men.
“And the women are incredibly provocative, which drives the men crazy. The women started off as sweet, hard-working, polite and considerate. They knew they would have to make changes and not be as likable because they have something more important to address."
The fact the fashions of the era were so beautiful adds another element to the production, designed by Leesa Hamilton, Code says.
“There’s a scene that opens with all the ladies at a dance in hoop skirts in bright colours and parasols and the men in top hats and frock coats, and it’s so beautiful."
And then, the beauty was stopped by the seemingly endless war.
“It became blurry what they were fighting for," says Code, who grew up in Dartmouth, where she attended Prince Andrew High School before enrolling in Dalhousie University’s theatre department, graduating in 1987.
It seems incongruous, but Lysistrata is funny from beginning to end, she says.
“And Allen Cole has written beautiful songs," Code says, adding that actors play banjo, mandolin, guitar, fiddle and clarinet, as well as sing.
“It’s mostly choral singing. The men want money and arms to continue the war, the women want to stop the war.
They sing. We answer. The original play has a chorus that speaks in unison. We sing in unison.
“Some of the songs have a barbershop feel; some are rock ’n’ roll. Some are old, old ballads. There’s lots of music. If Allen Cole wrote the music for a show, I’d come no matter what."
Lysistrata runs till Aug. 11.
(anemetz@herald.ca)
A LOOK AT LYSISTRATA
WHAT: Lysistrata, Temptress of the South, based on the play by Aristophanes
WHO: Two Planks and a Passion Theatre
WHERE: Outdoors at Ross Creek Centre for the Arts, near Canning
WHEN: Previewing tonight to Friday at 6 p.m.; opening Saturday, running Tuesdays to Sundays until Aug. 11 at 6 p.m., with matinees on July 21, 28, Aug. 4 and 11 at 1 p.m.
COMPOSER & MUSICAL DIRECTOR: Allen Cole
STARRING: Burgandy Code, Kirstin Howell, Ben Irvine, Jamie Konchak, Alexis Milligan, Chris O’Neill, Graham Percey, Ryan Rogerson, Jeff Schwager Musicians: Kirstin Howell, fiddle; Ryan Rogerson, mandolin; Ben Irvine, banjo, guitar; Alexis Milligan, clarinet.
DIRECTOR: Ken Schwartz
COSTUMES: Leesa Hamilton with costume studies partner Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
TICKETS: Previews $17.25; $28.75; seniors, students, equity members, Acadia performing arts students, active military, $23; child, $11.50, family (two adults, two children), $74.75, extra child, $5.75.
Group rates available. Call 582-3073.
WEBSITE: www.twoplanks.ca
“They decide to withhold sex until the war is stopped," says Burgandy Code, who is starring in the title role in the outdoor production by Two Planks and a Passion Theatre.
Previews begin tonight and it opens Saturday.
Based on a 2,500-year-old play by Aristophanes, Lysistrata has been adapted by Two Planks artistic director Ken Schwartz and set during the American Civil War.
It features original music and lyrics by Allen Cole, who also created the multi-Merritt Award-winning musical Rockbound, staged by Two Planks in 2009.
“More American men died in that war than in the First and Second World Wars combined," Code says by phone from Ross Creek Centre for the Arts near Canning, where she is taking a break from rehearsals in a sunny buttercup-filled field.
“The numbers were staggering. It had a kind of senselessness to it. The division was ideological, not geographic. The (officers) trained at the same military colleges, then led separate armies against each other."
In Lysistrata, the women of one river valley refuse to let the men come near them until the war is stopped, says Code.
“The American Civil War was brutal.
“This play is like magical realism, ‘if only this could have happened.’ " This is Code’s sixth summer at Ross Creek. She has been part of every production since The Odyssey in 2007, Two Plank’s inaugural outdoor show.
“I was pregnant that first show," recalls Code, who is married to Ryan Rogerson, appearing in Lysistrata as the mayor.
The two met at Festival Antigonish doing Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie.
“Our daughter, Ella Mary Tulip, has been on the mountain her whole life. We live in Toronto 11 months a year, and we look forward to being in the country."
The nine-member Two Planks company consists almost entirely of couples.
Besides Code and Rogerson, Chris O’Neill, who plays Myrrhine, is married to Schwartz, who is directing the play. Jamie Konchak (Stratyllis) and Graham Percy (The Captain) and Alexis Milligan (Calonice) and Jeff Schwager (soldier, Cinesias) are also couples.
Code says being a mother helps her relate to her character.
“The war has been going on for four years when her son is called to duty. She has an epiphany that this can’t keep going on. Because it’s personal, she’s inspired to act."
But Lysistrata has to get the other women onside and the upper-class Southern women of that era have defined roles and are not used to behaving in that way, notes Code, who loves speaking with the accent’s “pretty little cadence."
“The women take over the bank so the men can’t get money for the war. They occupy the armouries so they can’t get weapons, and won’t sleep with the men.
“And the women are incredibly provocative, which drives the men crazy. The women started off as sweet, hard-working, polite and considerate. They knew they would have to make changes and not be as likable because they have something more important to address."
The fact the fashions of the era were so beautiful adds another element to the production, designed by Leesa Hamilton, Code says.
“There’s a scene that opens with all the ladies at a dance in hoop skirts in bright colours and parasols and the men in top hats and frock coats, and it’s so beautiful."
And then, the beauty was stopped by the seemingly endless war.
“It became blurry what they were fighting for," says Code, who grew up in Dartmouth, where she attended Prince Andrew High School before enrolling in Dalhousie University’s theatre department, graduating in 1987.
It seems incongruous, but Lysistrata is funny from beginning to end, she says.
“And Allen Cole has written beautiful songs," Code says, adding that actors play banjo, mandolin, guitar, fiddle and clarinet, as well as sing.
“It’s mostly choral singing. The men want money and arms to continue the war, the women want to stop the war.
They sing. We answer. The original play has a chorus that speaks in unison. We sing in unison.
“Some of the songs have a barbershop feel; some are rock ’n’ roll. Some are old, old ballads. There’s lots of music. If Allen Cole wrote the music for a show, I’d come no matter what."
Lysistrata runs till Aug. 11.
(anemetz@herald.ca)
A LOOK AT LYSISTRATA
WHAT: Lysistrata, Temptress of the South, based on the play by Aristophanes
WHO: Two Planks and a Passion Theatre
WHERE: Outdoors at Ross Creek Centre for the Arts, near Canning
WHEN: Previewing tonight to Friday at 6 p.m.; opening Saturday, running Tuesdays to Sundays until Aug. 11 at 6 p.m., with matinees on July 21, 28, Aug. 4 and 11 at 1 p.m.
COMPOSER & MUSICAL DIRECTOR: Allen Cole
STARRING: Burgandy Code, Kirstin Howell, Ben Irvine, Jamie Konchak, Alexis Milligan, Chris O’Neill, Graham Percey, Ryan Rogerson, Jeff Schwager Musicians: Kirstin Howell, fiddle; Ryan Rogerson, mandolin; Ben Irvine, banjo, guitar; Alexis Milligan, clarinet.
DIRECTOR: Ken Schwartz
COSTUMES: Leesa Hamilton with costume studies partner Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
TICKETS: Previews $17.25; $28.75; seniors, students, equity members, Acadia performing arts students, active military, $23; child, $11.50, family (two adults, two children), $74.75, extra child, $5.75.
Group rates available. Call 582-3073.
WEBSITE: www.twoplanks.ca
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