Lysis, 2021

A creation by Fanny Britt and Alexia Bürger
after Aristophanes
Directed by Lorraine Pintal
Set design Dominique Blain
Costumes Marie Chantale Vaillancourt
Lighting Martin Sirois
Original music Philippe Brault
Video design Lionel Arnould

This day when women say no the country is paralyzed: women have had enough and they have taken to the streets with the telluric power of an earthquake, demanding justice. Their weapon: the reproduction strike. Their inspiration: Lysis, a researcher for a large corporation with tied leaders, but a long-time underground activist. As the government passes a special law, a masculinist militia kills a protester, and a political assassination turns everything upside down, Lysis lives through the heartbreak of her commitment: with her lover, her colleagues, her militant cell, her friends.

In the age of #metoo, denunciations of powerful abusers, the still gloriously capitalist patriarchy, and enduring inequities, this is a ferocious, wide-ranging fiction where women take the high road to stop the perpetuation of an unjust and destructive world. The creators’ inspiration? The women’s strike in Lysistrata written in Athens by Aristophanes almost 2,500 years ago. But also the devastating anger of Electra that Sophocles had just created.

For this creation on these glaring issues, Lorraine Pintal, who directs, has called upon two formidable playwrights engaged in current debates: Fanny Britt and Alexia Bürger. A diverse cast of fifteen performers – including the electrifying Bénédicte Décary as Lysis – gives full scope to this interdisciplinary show.