Lysistrata

In 411 BC, Aristophanes wrote the most radical comedy in Western theatre: women withholding sex until men end their war. Lysistrata, the title heroine, persuades women from Athens and Sparta to take a solemn oath of abstinence until peace is negotiated. What follows is a uproarious battle of the sexes, with men growing desperate, women holding the Acropolis, and the entire Greek world turned upside down. The play is bawdy, cunning, and viciously smart. It asks a simple question that still cuts: why do men wage wars that women and children suffer from? The comedy lands because Aristophanes understands that desire, humor, and politics are inseparable. Nearly 2,500 years later, Lysistrata still has the power to make you laugh, squirm, and wonder why the most obvious political truths still go unsaid.