In the year 411, ac could see for the first time one of his best known works, Lysistrataa theatrical comedy with a marked feminist accent that became an antibelicist symbol. Now, almost 2,500 years later and in a world dotted with wars, the representation of this classic title of ancient Greece has ended up in a stuck during its staging in. According to the socialist municipal opposition, it is a “serious act of censorship” of the Mayor’s Office, in the hands of the PP, which reddles the Councilor for Equality, Mari Carmen Muñoz: “It was not the most appropriate version for the audience, so I preferred to suspend it before paying the consequences.”
The abrupt outcome took place on Friday afternoon during the municipal gala organized by the area of equality, held within the framework of the events of the. After the delivery of eight distinctions to relevant women of the city and a musical performance, the actresses of the group, directed by Paca López, took the stage to stage the adaptation, Lisistrate, tragedy and comedy of ancient Greece. Just five minutes after its beginning, the Councilor for Equality rose from her seat and ordered the paralysis of the work. Several witnesses consulted by this newspaper have indicated that the audience that filled the auditorium of the Linares pitch reacted perplexity to the unexpected interruption, although, surprisingly, there were hardly any protests or complaints.
Other testimonies point out that many spectators did not warn of the suspension and thought it was part of the work itself. In Lysistrataits protagonist, wife of one of the most important citizens of Athens, poses to the women of the city sexual abstinence to deter men from which they continue the war against Sparta.
“It was a version sui generis whose content and language were not the most appropriate to the public in the room, where there were older people and children, ”explained the mayor Linarense, who points out“ Soeces words, inappropriate for minors ”and“ high sexual content ”, and sharply denies any act of censorship. Muñoz does admit lack of communication with the director of the assembly, with whom the City Council collaborates regularly: “If I get to know before the radical content of the work we would not have accepted it.” And to defend that there has been no veto, he argues that he will schedule this work in an upcoming cultural activity in the city.
“This is a serious sample of censorship and attack on freedom of expression,” he lamented from the PSOE of this city, the immediate cessation of the councilor has been demanded, as well as a public rectification by the PP government team. “We will not allow censorship and ideological repression to be normal in our city,” they have indicated in a statement.
The actress and theatrical director did not want to make statements after admitting that she is still “flipping” and “in a state of shock”Given something that, he says, had never happened to him in all his professional career. In fact, this same work had been represented several times in Linares, the last one on October 20 at the Cervantes Theater, also with its address and adaptation.
For the PSOE of Linares, what happened “is a clear sample of authoritarianism with which the PP manages the City Council, imposing its personal criteria on the right of citizenship to express themselves and enjoy culture without arbitrary restrictions.” And they assure that it is not the first time that something similar happens, since in April 2024 the City Council denied a public space for an exhibition that demanded peace and freedom for the Palestinian people.
“These facts show a worrying derive in which censorship becomes a political tool, restricting any initiative that does not fit the ideological vision of the government team,” indicate the socialists, who warn of “a worrying tendency in which the right right silence culture, freedom of expression and critical thinking.”
For looking for a reference on censorship of Lysistrata You have to go back to 1955, when the United States Government Communications Minister undertook it against the work. Then, the newspaper Daily Worker, of the US Communist Party, He commented that the alleged danger of the work could be that Lysistrata’s desire for the country was infected among the women of the country when the government was embarked on the nuclear weapons career.
