Lilo Baur
Born in Switzerland, Lilo Baur began her career as an actress in London. She appeared at the Royal National Theatre in Oresteia, directed by Katie Mitchell, and at Shakespeare’s Globe in The Merchant of Venice, directed by Richard Olivier. As a member of the Théâtre de Complicité she performed in numerous plays, including The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol, directed by Simon McBurney, for which she received the Dora Award and the Manchester Evening News Award for Best Actress. She has also collaborated with director Peter Brook and lent her voice for a series of BBC Radio Drama productions.
Baur’s film and television credits include roles in Tim Fehlbaum’s award-winning film Hell, Beeban Kidron’s comedy Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, as well as the Golden Globe-nominated TV mini-series Bleak House and the BAFTA-winning TV mini-series The Way We Live Now.
Baur has directed plays by Shakespeare, Chekhov and Gogol. Her productions have been presented in several countries, including Greece, Spain, France and Italy. Recent directorial projects include The House of Bernarda Alba at the Comédie Française, The Girl Who is Falling, Falling, Falling at the Athens & Epidaurus Festival 2017 and Après la Pluie for the Comédie Française, Paris (November 2017).
WORKSHOP
The Reversal of Gender in Aristophanes’ The Assemblywomen
Cuycle A: 2 – 16 July
In Book 5 of Plato’s Republic it is said that in the ideal State women could be part of the government and that a form of sexual communism could be practiced. Aristophanes debates that proposal on stage for the first time ever in the history of Western drama, tackling the issue of power reallocation. Aristophanes’ choice is all the more impressive if one takes into consideration the fact that both the audience and the actors at the time were exclusively men. Praxagora, the protagonist of The Assemblywomen, condemns the ineptitude, laziness, and corruption of the existing, male-run Assembly. She proposes that women should take over the reins of the government and stages ‘a coup d’état’. Praxagora packs the Assembly with women supporters, all dressed up as men, who vote overwhelmingly for women to take over power from men.
“But that’s precisely why we’ve gathered here, to rehearse our lines before the meeting starts. So, get your beard attached without delay, and likewise anyone else’s who’s practiced speaking” (ll. 116-21). Employing Aristophanes’ text, this workshop will examine the different ways in which male and female actors can play the Other gender on stage. Participants will research and practice the ways in which women can disguise themselves as men, taking lessons in how to “speak” and “act” like men, much like female characters do in The Assemblywomen in order to infiltrate the Assembly. Participants will also explore the various ways in which men can portray women on stage, a standard practice in ancient Greek drama and Shakespeare’s theatre.