“Lisistrata”, by Aristophanes, marks Manuela Couto’s debut in the staging

A play is the Professional Aptitude Test (PAP) of 24 finalist students of the Professional School of Theater and Cinema of Cascais (EPTC), with the cast of the Experimental Theatre of Cascais (TEC), namely the actors Cláudia Semedo, Rita Cabaço, José Contessa and Marco D'Almeida.

In an interview with the agency Lusa, Manuela Couto said that she wonders every day about why she accepted the invitation of the artistic director of TEC, Fernando Alvarez, to stage.

“It’s the question I ask myself every day. Why did I decide? Why did I take it? In fact, I had never staged before, because also, quite honestly, it is not something I wanted to do very much, otherwise I would have done it longer”, he started by saying Manuela Couto who recognized that he had “some curiosity”.

“There’s one thing I do with some frequency and I like to do a lot, which is the direction of actors on television; and I did several assists [enactment] when I was in [theatro] The Commune [in Lisbon]. And I really like this part of directing, directing, whatever, especially the actors. But the vision of the whole thing wasn't something that attracted me beyond. But, in fact, when Fernando Alvarez invited me, as early as last year, ‘why not?’”, said the actress who highlighted her connection to EPTC, where she taught, having been part of the juries of previous tests.

“ I thought it was a good time to do something I had never done and accepted, more at the basis of the challenge ", declared.

“Lisist” was written in 404 before Christ, coinciding with one of the most pronounced crises experienced by the City-State of Athens. The plot takes place during a prolonged war between Greek cities. In the face of the inability of the rulers to achieve peace, Lysistrate gathers women from rival territories and proposes a concerted action: suspend sexual life until men negotiate the end of the conflict. Older women occupy the Acropolis and take control of the public treasury, thus blocking military funding.

“ I think Aristotle had very special characteristics, he was indeed a man and an extraordinary artist. What he did in his comedies was create a fantasy world, a fictional world.”.

“ He creates a utopia, so he creates realities that don't exist as a way to solve reality, so to speak. And there is an idea that I have read in one of the many texts that I have consulted about the ‘Lisist’, which is from John Constantius, who has a very faithful translation to the Greek, full of obscenities, which is something we do not have in this version of Michael Grace”.

“There is a reflection that Constantius makes: when we look at the ‘Lisistrata’, it is like looking at the statues of Easter Island or the paintings of the prehistoric caves. In fact, this is an archaeological object that functions as that, as a trace of time”.

“ And it is indeed very fascinating how this man, 400 years before Christ, managed to create this utopia, this society in which women use the only weapon they have, which is their futility, their worthlessness from the point of view of men, and use their only weapon, which is sex”.

In fact, Manuela Couto recalls, “despite everything, in Greek society there was a lot of homosexuality, so that question [of sex] would not even be so pressing. Men had homosexual practices that were frequent and accepted above all in Sparta, even more so than in Athens, and Aristotle creates this reality. And comedy comes precisely from this reversal of values”.

“ The play begins with the Lysistrate saying: ‘We will use these arguments, be futile, walk home doing nothing, just fragrant, just to have sex, and we will use this to achieve peace’”, recalls the director.

“The public at that time in Classical Greece was mostly male. Men start laughing at the ridiculous women. But then, at the end of the play, they laugh at themselves, because they succumb to the desire for women”.

“ The play is a comedy because it has a comedy structure. The dialogues, the rhythm, the deceptions, the subtleties, is a lot of language of comedy ", stressed Manuela Couto à Lusa.

Miguel Graça's dramaturgy eliminated the obscenities of the original text. “There are none,” he said, justifying the option to be “in the school context”.

“It is a test of professional fitness of a school at the end of high school. And I think that was very clever of Miguel. In fact, he is a great playwright, and decided to use metaphors.”.

“The piece is full of sexual metaphors”, Manuela Couto continues. “ References above, below, inside, out. It's full of sexual images, and we explored it with the kids. We explore it – I explore it in the staging – but there is not a single mistake. The only word that refers to sex is the word sex itself. This is a metanarrative, isn't it? We use the word sex when we want to refer to sex”.

In this version, “Lísistrata” takes place during an audition of actors for the play “Lisistrata”. “There is a voice, omnipresent and omniscient, which directs the hearing. [...] There are bodies that enter, which are a metaphor for actors and actresses. They are bodies that serve an idea and serve a text. There is thus an omnipresent voice [the soprano Ana Ester Neves], recorded, which gives indications for what is happening during the show. And we have this oscillation between the body/actor and the character that appears in the various scenes. So it is a very own version that we will have here on the scene.”.

The costumes, by Fernando Alvarez, “are anachronistic,” said Manuela Couto. “They are not of season, they do not have an exact time, there is also no reference [to Classical Greece] in the scene or in the scenic space. There will be columns, referring to the Acropolis [the center of power in Athens] but it will be the only thing”.

On comedy, the director said that a demonstration was recreated, “when women take the acropolis”. “We have songs. The original soundtrack is from Tomás Alves and is fantastic. I like it because it has an interventional spirit with aspects of interventional song”.

Regarding the completion of the play, Manuela Couto highlights the evidence: “The Lisistrate only wants peace, she does not make a revolution, because in the end everything remains the same. The men come back, go into the acropolis, go to bed with their wives, the women with their husbands. Life goes back to what it was, with a big difference: the war is over. War is not needed”.

“Lisistrata” opens at the Mirita Casimiro Theatre in Cascais next Friday. On the eve, a solidarity test is held in favour of the REFOOD Association, with the entry to be made through the delivery of food.

On July 18, there is a session with interpretation in Portuguese Sign Language and, on the 19th, there is a conversation with the public after the show, which is on stage until July 26th.