For a number of reasons, I decided on Lysistrata by Aristophanes as the choice of play, not least because it is currently a set text for the Edexcel GCE Drama & Theatre Studies course and was likely to attract Post-16 audiences. One major drawback was that I found much about the exam board's chosen translation uninspiring. It was by a wonderful chance that I came across Laurence Housman's adaptation, passed to me by a writer friend. It was the start of a real enthusiasm for the play and a huge admiration for Laurence Housman.

Influenced by his sister Clemence with whom he lived, Housman was hugely involved with the Suffrage movement, one of the few men prominent in the campaign. He recalls in his autobiography, The Unexpected Years (1937) how the work on Lysistrata came to be commissioned:
She asked me [of Gertrude Kingston who ran the Little Theatre] if I would do a free (but not too 'free') translation of Aristophanes' Lysistrata. I jumped at the opportunity; the Women's Suffrage agitation was then in full blast, and here was a play of feminist propaganda which offered lurid possibilities. Even if this was also censored (as well it might be) it would still be good material for publication as an aid to the women's cause. (p247)

As Housman had used Lysistrata as a vehicle to promote the Suffrage movement, I decided that, in turn, we would take his script and use it to emphasise an anti-war message. As a considerable peace campaigner himself, it felt a fitting tribute to Housman's work, in addition to the exciting fact that our production would be performed exactly 100 years after the premiere at The Little Theatre.

The rest of this article will be found in the Autumn Edition of Word Matters, which can be purchased by following the Subscribe links on the left of this page.