Too Hot? Boycott.

Kathryn Blume’s one woman show The Boycott is not really about global warming, a world-wide sex embargo launched by the first lady of the United States or a talking Brazilian tree frog that dispenses wisdom while hanging out on the astral plane, although all of these elements feature prominently in the plot. The Boycott is about that marvelous human gift for turning desperation into inspiration. The real-world Blume is commissioned to write an adaptation of Lysistrata, Aristophanes’ anti-war play wherein the women withhold nookie to bring about peace. Blume is paralyzed by her ecological concerns, and the omnipresent feeling that she should be doing something meaningful to save the world, and so not much writing is being achieved. But then her doubt and fear give way to an idea: A big-budget movie that modernizes Lysistrata into Lyssa Stratton, a Southern belle First Lady who organizes a global fornication cool-down to force the men in charge of Big Oil into changing their dangerous ways and averting a global warming fiasco. The fact that Blume’s a Hollywood nobody means the creation of her film occurs within the structure of her one-woman show, which stars Kathryn Blume in all roles, and the whole thing will be uploaded to Youtube.com for mass dissemination. You can catch the grassroots, live version of The Boycott at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday (April 4 and 5) at the Ivory Theatre (7622 Michigan Avenue; 314-368-7306 or www.hydeware.org). Tickets are $15.
Fri., April 4; Sat., April 5, 2008