As a director, outline your objectives for the use of two design elements in your production of the play and give examples, supported by reasons, of how your ideas might be achieved in performance.

In my performance of Aristophane’s comedy ‘Lysistrata’, I aim to bring out the more serious themes of equality and war. In order to achieve this, I am setting my performance in 1918, during World War 1 and the Suffragette movement.

The first design element I shall use to explore my themes is costume. I have decided to have the character of Lysistrata in a red dress so she stands out as the main character from the other women, all of whom will be wearing grey and beige. The colour red is also symbolic of love, another key theme in the play, as well as sacrifice and poppies, which are relevant to the theme of war. When ‘Lysistrata’ was first performed in 411 BC, colour symbolism would have also been used in the costumes. The colour purple was often symbolic of royalty and trailing robes often meant the character was grieving.

Ancient Greek actors also wore masks in order to distinguish different characters, as well as signify whether the play was a comedy or a tragedy. These masks were also used for projecting the voice in the outside space. Although I chose to use masks in my performance, their use has a different intention. I have decided that all the men will be dressed as soldiers, but wearing masks, to shock the audience into realising that as a soldier, men have no individual identity – they are all the same. Therefore I am using masks for unity rather than individualism.