An exemplar essay of Aristophanes' Lysistrata for Drama A-Level students. It is written based on this question "How would you direct the performers of the chorus, in the parados, to show their attitude towards certain people and events? ".
How would you direct the performers of the chorus, in the parados, to show their attitude towards
certain people and events?
Lysistrata, a comedy written by Aristophanes which was first performed in 411BC, was set during the
Peloponnesian war. The chorus within the play is divided into 2 (men and women) and they are both
at battle with each other due to the women taking over the Acropolis in retaliation. The parados is a
debate between. As a director, I would direct the chorus of men to perform as overtly masculine,
grotesque and comedically old. The use of spass makes it impossible for an audience to sympathise
with them or connect with them in any capacity. To portray the men as these characteristics, I would
instruct the actors to walk with and unsteady gait, leading with different body parts and clearing
displaying the men to be in agony through their movements. This can be done through shaky legs
and hands, a hunched back, and little, slowly paced steps. One man, for example, could be rushing to
get to their destination and clearly has passion and hatred of the women. I would exemplify this
through having an actor, have balled up fists that they hastily move in front of them in a rushed
motion, however, the rest of their body (most importantly their legs) does not match the pace and is
slowing them down. They would all move in a slow pace in unison, however, keeping a uniformed,
diamond shape formation throughout and therefore abiding to the original performance conditions.
This will add to the comedic effect as the old men are forgetting that they are not old soldiers
anymore and think they are capable of more than they are.
Another way I would direct the chorus to show their attitude is through their voices. Their voices and
action will be very mismatched, whilst the men are moving very slowly and shuffling their way along,
their voices should show hatred so I would want to portray this by directing actors to transform their
voices into hoarse and slow, for example. Their voices would also be soft and weak, with a few men
barely getting a couple of words out before spluttering out their words. Whilst their voices are soft
and weak this will not prevent them for showing the men’ hatred (spitting out their words about the
women) and rather will add comedic effect as these characters that appear as weak and feeble are in
front of an audience posing like warriors (further showing the audience how the men want to appear
as overtly masculine and intimidating). The posing should emulate bodybuilder poses and Greek
statues to convey that the men think very highly of themselves (as later seen with their chants about
women with line such as “Lycon’s wicked wife”) and place themselves above everyone else. This will
be funny for the audience as this is the opposite of what the audience thinks of them.
Finally, I would want to show the audience that these men do not value women but think very highly
of themselves through directing the actors to vocally show their rage and arrogance as well. The
performers should emphasise some words (such as “seized OUR own Acropolis”) to show that they
have a belief that they own everything and that it is impossible for women to rebel (“Incredible,
impossible”). These emphasised words should be almost venomous to show that they are being
derogatory to the women and mean malicious intent. However, these words could be inaudible to
reinforce their age and condition once again. I would have some mumbles and groans in the
background so not every actor would be speaking the words clearly and therefore the men are not as
loud and frightening as they would like to be, bringing in comedic elements again.
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