When it comes to the arts, Ross Vosvotekas wears many hats. From writing to directing to acting to stand-up comedy, the 30-year-old cut his teeth at Flinders University where he studied drama. Through his course, he was exposed to all different forms, enjoying all of them.

In 2004, the Greek Australian – who only spoke Greek as a child at home – set up his own theatre company, Adapt Enterprises, in Adelaide. There he began producing mainly original pieces of theatre, and has seen his company grow into producing established plays too.

But it was a call by the South Australian Council for the Greek Cultural Month’s president Stamatiki Kritas, who asked Ross to become more involved in the program they were running as part of the 2014 Festival Hellenika. Lysistrata was the play Ross decided to direct and it is also the first Greek play Ross has ever produced.

The play is still very modern,” Ross tells Neos Kosmos.

“Even though the play is 2,500 years old, it still resonates with a modern audience and still feels very contemporary, so that’s an ode to Aristophanes.”
The play is being performed in English, instead of Greek, and they have used a modern translation for this. There are 15 local performers on the production ranging from actors, musicans and stand-ups and there will also be a live music element to the show.

It’s more natural for Ross to write and direct his own plays, but when he was approached by Stamatiki and the folk at Festival Hellenika, he knew that Lysistrata was the play for him.

“If I were going to chose a play it would be Lysistrata, because it’s a very important Greek play with a very important anti- war message,” he says.

“The plot, in a nutshell, is the women of Greece withhold pleasure from their husbands to stop them going to war and to gain peace, and at the moment our world is a little bit delicate in how it stands and it’s rife with war,” he explains, adding “maybe here in Australia we are lucky but there are still parts of the world were people are fighting for basic human rights, so there’s also a big social message in this play.”

First performed in 411 BC, it’s an anti-war, feminist piece about the battle between the sexes, revealing that little has changed in more than 2,000 years. The women of Greece have grown tired of their men always being at war. Under the direction of an Athenian woman, Lysistrata (which translates to army disbander), they execute a plan to secure peace. Lysistrata’s task is not easy; she must overcome the misogynistic views of her male peers, crotchety members of the older generation and also the increasing libidos of her fellow protestors.

Lysistrata is on at Holden St Theatres, 34 Holden St, Hindmarsh on May 15-18; 22-25; and 28-31 from 7.00 pm. For tickets visit www.venuetix.com.au or (08) 8225 8888