Something old is new again in Mark Adamo's racy, light-hearted take on a classic Greek comedy. The men of Sparta and Athens have been at war for ages, and the women have had enough. Lysia, sung by DFW favorite Ava Pine, can't convince her lover Nico to leave the Athenian army. In fact, he interrupts their romantic evening to heed the battle call. So she rallies the women of both cities in a "make love, not war" campaign that means no "love" until the men put down their arms. Of course, the truce can't last—and Ares and Aphrodite themselves must intervene. Adamo, renowned composer of Fort Worth Opera's 2005 hit Little Women, adapts the classic Greek comedy from Aristophanes.

"…antiwar satire becomes a sumptuous love story, poised between comedy and heartbreak" – The New Yorker
"…at once provocative, hilarious, bawdy and tender" – Houston Chronicle

Contains adult content

ACT I
The Athenians and the Spartans are at war with each other. Kleonike urges the other Athenian women to protest the war, a protest that Lysia is tired of hearing. Nico, Lysia’s lover and general of the Athenian army, comes to visit her but leaves her frustrated when he refuses to resign from the war. In her anger, she calls together both the Athenian and the Spartan women and tells them of her strategy to force the men into peace – seize the Acropolis and declare a moratorium on sex.

When both armies arrive at the Acropolis, the war between Athens and Sparta takes a back seat to the war between the sexes. The women announce their intentions to withhold themselves from their men, while the men refuse to make peace until the women concede to the men.

ACT II
Neither the men nor the women were prepared for the other gender’s tenacity. The frustrated soldiers urge the generals to reconsider, but the generals argue they must follow orders without question. One-by-one the frustrated women attempt to leave the Acropolis, but Lysia thwarts each of them. Nico comes to Lysia and offers to resign if she will quit too. She quickly agrees, but before she can leave the Acropolis, the women enter and ceremoniously honor her for her steadfastness, renaming her Lysistrata. In order to stay true to the women’s cause, Lysia goes back on her word to Nico and instead prevents the women from conceding to the men. As the men and women face off one more time, the women offer a solution to divide the disputed territories, and the men ecstatically agree.

At a joint feast celebrating the newfound peace, fighting erupts between the Athenians and the Spartans again, and two men are killed. In exasperation, Kleonike calls out to Ares and Aphrodite, who appear and explain that conflict will always be humankind’s companion. Then the gods bring the two men back to life, and all the reunited couples stop to relish this brief moment of peace and happiness.

Written by Hannah Smith