LYSISTRATA, adapted by El Waddingham from Aristophanes’ ancient comedy follows a group of ferocious women as they take a stand against war by refusing to have sex with their husbands (and take over the city’s financial and political epicentre, but that’s far less scandalous) Throw in an all-female/queer cast and crew, language pulled straight from the original text and the comments section of a Twitter argument and a hardy dose of female rage-and you’ve got an emblematic theatrePUNK co. show. Taking a deep stab at questions of activism, womanhood, and queerness, LYSISTRATA is a dagger-edged, glittered new take on an iconic story of women doing what we do best: fight.

Society has always downplayed female paedophilia for a very long time. But this is a severe issue. Boys are raped and abused every day, and it goes unreported; hence the number of women sexually abusing children is much higher than conviction rates. Reasons for low conviction rates are cited as male victims particularly feel reluctant to come forward because they fear that their experience will not be viewed as sexual abuse. They feel pressure to view their sexual encounters with women as a badge of honour. Men Don’t Cry is a one-man stage theatre play that explores this issue from an African point of view. This dramatic comedy piece fused with ancient African music is moving, touching, and entertaining at the same time while giving social insight on many African issues affecting African men living in the diaspora.