Playwright: Lindsay Porter,
based on the play by Aristophanes
At: Running With Scissors at the Viaduct, 3111 N. Western Ave.
Phone: (773) 913-6471; $20
Runs through: June 9
The war's dragged on too long, say the women, who vow not to have sex until the men sign a piece—uh, peace treaty. Fucking and fighting being an eternal component of humankind's social structure, the entertainment value of this premise, first introduced in 411 B.C., has not diminished in the centuries following, the only variations being the degree to which the illustration of its theme is bowdlerized.
So why doesn't Aristophanes' reliable plot start humping until an hour and 15 minutes into this production? Author Lindsay Porter claims her play's focus is war, not sex, but what this comedy ('based on' the Greek classic) is REALLY about is American pop culture and the consumer ethic. In its universe, sex is represented by the products of the Beauty Industry and war, by media images that promulgate self-serving agendas. But these attempts to locate the sexual moratorium in a broader context instead allow it to drift in a morass of slides, videos, topical satire, literary asides, and Funny Bits.
This is not say that most of the Bits aren't, in fact, funny. Extensive double-entendres are mandated by the subject matter (see how many you count in the first two paragraphs of this review) as are the exaggerated phalli of the horny hawks. The gay male who also pledges not to sleep with men is a smart analogy. So is the conceit, however sexist, of the lone female Government Representative refusing to support the protest—until her husband joins the cause and bars the bedroom door. And I liked the TV-newscaster named 'Sappho B. Toklas.'
Ultimately, however, Porter's cogent arguments are undermined by the surrounding clutter. Take, for example, the scene in which the bare facts of a child's history lesson suddenly becomes a vision of soldiers invading her own home—a potentially hard-hitting dramatization whose impact is diluted by the cheap gag of having the little girl played by a burly man in drag. And the 'Man's Best Friend' musical number—featuring dancing penes—quickly outstays its welcome. Running With Scissors' production values are impeccable, but 30 minutes' less foreplay would make for a more satisfying climax.