Chi-Raq: Where ancient Greek theatre meets modern day Chicago
Time to revise your classics, folks.
Based on a 2500-year-old Greek play Lysistrata by sarcastic Greek writer Aristophanes, Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq is set in Southern Chicago where the gang wars exasperate the civilians as they mourn a growing number of victims. With a music-clip-styled opening, the exposition sums up the debauchery of sex, insults and violence plaguing the community.
Living blissfully in this destructive environment, the main heroine, Lysistrata (Teyona Parris), will change as she meets Miss Helen (Angela Basset), a calm, cold-blooded mother who encourages her to solve this violent male rivalry with a simple motto: ‘no peace, no pussy’. Thus begins a surreal sex-strike followed by all the women, motivated by the growing death of innocent children shot by a stray bullet, veering from dramatically emotional moments (a mother’s grief over her daughter’s murder) to pure hilarity when men start losing their minds after three months of abstinence.
Samuel L. Jackson appears in the form of a greek chorus in Chi-Raq/ Parrish Lewis
Obviously, sexism and misogynist behaviours are central to the plot. Although it might seem far fetched that women have to reconsider their position based on how men objectify them, it is cruelly relevant to the 21st century so far. The insistence on this process of objectification (whatever the age of the concerned woman: a child is a corpse, a young adult is a sex doll and a mature woman is shelter) being so necessary to the story made me wonder if it actually delivers a message opposite to the intended one. The almost extreme feminist view on men; they are all brutal, ridiculous and sexually obsessed, except perhaps Samuel L. Jackson playing a sassy narrator; is sometimes unsettling for its depressing view.
A passionate cast –mainly black actors, which is a nice change from the usual Hollywood whitewashing- gives a realistic tone to their performances
Hopefully, the other causes Spike Lee stands for are strongly exposed and explored. He simultaneously points at the racial tensions linked to poverty and violence, the denunciation of America’s gun culture (three cheers for the priest’s speech openly blaming the National Rifle Association’s lobby on the government), the people’s powerlessness before the administration and the threatened order offered by the Church. A passionate cast –mainly black actors, which is a nice change from the usual Hollywood whitewashing—gives a realistic tone to their performances, being as excessive as gang lives would have taught them to be.
Teyonah Parris (Lysistrata) is worth the ticket thanks to her graceful evolution from submitted sex-partner to a determined, strong leader for peace. Her speech and Nick Cannon’s (Chi-raq) addressed directly to the camera are successful attempts at breaking the fourth wall and inspire the audience to wake up.
Nick Cannon in Chi-Raq/ Parrish Lewis
The dynamic, colourful pop aesthetic is enjoyable but what I loved the most were the dialogues, fully wrote in rhymes, as if rap was talked on the streets by anyone as fluidly as iambic pentameter. Added to the rap songs, the whole film manages to keep a poetic continuity amidst the brutality of some scenes. This odd mix of meticulously rhythmed and rhymed lines with gang violence over a thin layer of references to Ancient Greece (the gangs are the Spartans and the Trojans and some character names were taken from Greek mythology) has miraculously succeeded in modernizing Greek theatre for younger audiences.
In a nutshell; Chi-raq opens the doors of dusty, ancient Greek literature to a whole new perspective that will satisfy fans of film, Classics and rap alike.
The final show of Chi-Raq at the Warwick Arts Centre shall be at 6pm on 16th January, 2017.
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Nick Cannon, Wesley Snipes, Teyonah Parris, Jennifer Hudson, Angela Bassett, John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson
Country: USA
Run time: 127 minutes
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