In an electrifying new take on the classic Greek comedy LYSISTRATA, a raunchy female comedian with a taste for Motown soul leads a brazen feminist sex strike to stop the endless war between Athens and Sparta. Ancient History never rocked so hard.

SYNOPSIS:

GODS & BODS

Tone & Style:

Genre-bending adult historical comedy driven by hilarious stand-up monologues, classic R&B songs performed live and a gutsy young woman’s passionate battle to stop a war and bring peace through love, laughter and song. And while the tone is wickedly funny and amusing, there are many tense moments of life-threatening danger, heartbreaking sorrow and incredible courage and bravery during our heroine’s terrifying journey through her own Homeric Odyssey and the unpredictable actions of the Gods and Goddesses themselves, who serve as sharply distinctive characters and drive the story to Olympian heights.

The raunchy comedy of NIKKI GLASER and GIRLS TRIP, the powerful musical performances of SUMMER OF SOUL and the fierce worlds of XENA, THE ODYSSEY and TROY combine in a highly cinematic and entertaining romp through Ancient Greece and Homeric mythology via an exciting new version of Aristophanes’ LYSISTRATA, the first feminist antiwar play ever written and as powerful today as it was when it blew audiences away 2500 hundred years ago.

Story Overview:

Late 5th Century B.C. Greece is master of the ancient world, home to a Golden Age of architecture, philosophy, mathematics, theater and art. The Athenian navy rules the seas and protects the far-flung empire in return for crushing tributes which have made Athens incomparably wealthy. But there is resentment. Sparta, a highly militarized city-state second only to Athens in prestige and power, is fed up with Athens’ arrogance and declares war. The fighting rages for 20 years. Armies are decimated and Greece is torn apart. People are desperate for peace but their prayers to the Gods have gone unanswered. And amidst the conflict and suffering, a strong-willed, hot-blooded young woman with a unique vision and a powerful idea will soon turn the empire on its head and force an end to the fighting by using the most powerful weapon ever created – SEX.

Main Characters:

Zoe: Bright, bold, beautiful comedian-singer-entertainer and protégé of Aristophanes whose hilarious raunchy monologues about Greek mythology backed by classic Motown hits have made her a nightclub star and top social influencer, age 23. Devastated by the death of her brother, she launches a brazen feminist sex strike to stop the war behind the rallying cry NO PEACE! NO PUSSY!, earning powerful friends and enemies along the way.

Aristophanes: The Father of Greek Comedy. Wry, subversive, and wickedly funny playwright, head of Comedy Central and Zoe’s mentor and friend, age 35. Hates tragedies and calls Oedipus Rex “Oedipus Wrecks The Theater.” Supports Zoe’s sex strike but hope it ends soon because it’s given Greece a national epidemic of Toga Boner. Sees the humor in that too and thinks he’ll write a play about it.

Athena: Powerful Goddess of Wisdom and CEO of Gods Inc., age 40. When Zoe goes to the Parthenon to seek her blessing for her crusade to stop the war, Athena brings Zoe to Olympus for an eye-opening tour of the country club world of The Gods. Rallies the Board to support Zoe’s cause, becomes her patron and locks horns with Ares over who’s boss. Three handicap golfer who finally discovers the reason why Zeus beats her every time they play.

Nike: Punky, sporty Goddess of Victory, champion charioteer and Athena’s right hand woman for earthy affairs, age 20. Becomes besties with Zoe when they meet at the Olympics and bond over comedy, music and Hercules’ impressive package. Educates Zoe on the difference between the Gods as depicted in statues and mythology and the Gods as they really are. Loves to spread her wings and fly.

Theo: Zoe’s loving boyfriend and owner of THEO’S, the hottest nightclub in Athens, age 25. Knows it’s a guaranteed sell out when Zoe and her Funk Bros. band perform. Like Aristophanes, he supports the sex strike and hopes it ends soon because abstinence is killing business and can’t wait to get back in the saddle with Zoe to relieve his raging toga boner.

Hercules: Handsome, lovable, muscled to the max demi-God, possessor of a legendary package and heartthrob of women everywhere, age 25. Perennial Olympic champion who throws the discus to the moon and the javelin streaking past Saturn. Huge fan of Zoe’s club act and says the Gods on Olympus never miss a show. Supports Zoe’s mission to stop the war and becomes her muscle when the crusade takes flight and things get hot.

Chaka & Afro: Zoe’s sultry back-up singers and besties who keep the groove going whenever Zoe breaks into one of her raunchy monologues, age 25. Adamantly and hilariously against the sex strike but slowly come around when Zoe explains the higher purpose and the importance of female unity. But they warn Zoe she better seek Athena’s blessing before she goes off half-cocked, a warning that proves invaluable and changes the entire scope of the crusade.

Lampito: Huge, well-muscled and immensely strong female Spartan who Zoe persuades to join her crusade to stop the war and rally Spartan women to the cause, age 25. A blunt-spoken woman of few words, Zoe and Lampito go toe to toe during a ferocious argument and wind up sisters-in-arms after Lampito finally understands Zoe’s sincerity and realizes it’s not some Athenian trick to win the war.

Zeus: Chairman of Gods Inc. and runs the Board with an even hand, age 50. Gives all the Gods and Goddesses a chance to weigh in on Zoe’s proposal to end the war and when the vote is decidedly in Zoe’s favor, expects everyone to comply and not interfere. Spends a lot of time on the golf course and his secret to beating Athena every time they play is revealed to his chagrin in Zoe’s hilarious closing monologue at the Olympus Club.

Ares: Cruel, vindictive God of War and archenemy of Athena, age 40. Runs the war from a high tech command center on Olympus and refuses to comply with the Board’s decision not to interfere with Zoe’s crusade. Tries to kill Zoe by sending her on a terrifying ODYSSEY, but Zoe knows the text backwards and beats all the monsters and traps. As punishment, Athena banishes Ares from Olympus, where he joins Dr. Manhattan and Marvin The Martian in lonely exile.

Dionysus: Fun-loving Party God and master of mirth and mayhem, age 25. His Delta House headquarters is a nonstop orgy of booze, broads, drugs and In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida played loud. Athena and Zoe stop by the party and Zoe falls in love with the vibe, downing multiple shots of 100 proof ambrosia and earning Dionysus’s highest accolade: Party Girl!

Flippus, Dippus & Lippa Calda: Exuberant and amusing ex-jocks and broadcasters for the Athenian Sports Network (ASPN), all age 25. Flip’s and Dip’s live coverage of the Olympic Games is buoyant, insightful and full of one-liners that dig deep into the events and the athletes’ performances, like flawed footwork on the discus throw and suboptimal launch angle on the javelin. And while strong supporters of Zoe’s sex strike, they suffer from raging toga boners and analyze their predicament like Tony Romo breaking down the Niners offense. Lippa, their ace sideline reporter, is also a strong proponent of the strike but after years as a volleyball star at Lesbos University, is comfortable going both ways – a solution that doesn’t get much traction with Flip and Dip. Lippa steals the show during an interview with Hercules, where she gets an in-depth look at his merch and swallows the story whole.

Apollo: Golden God of healing, music, poetry and a raft of other things, age 25. Beloved by his fellow Immortals, Apollo spends most of his time flying his chariot around the globe and relaxing at his bucolic temple at Delphi. His powerful speech helps convince the Board to vote in favor of Zoe’s crusade, and after Zoe finishes her terrifying odyssey and washes ashore in Greece, Athena sends Apollo to welcome her home with a grilled steak dinner with sauce apollonaise.

SYNOPSIS:

411 B.C. The war between Athens and fellow Greek city-state Sparta has raged for 20 years. Tens of thousands have died and an entire generation of good men lost. The Golden Age of Greece, once the envy of the civilized world, is now consumed by tragedy, carnage and death.

Yet despite the conflict, Greece’s top comedic playwright Aristophanes and his brilliant young protégé Zoe, a sexy stand-up comedian-singer-entertainer with the hottest act in town, are doing their best to keep Athens laughing. Zoe and her Funk Brothers band have a regular gig at Theo's Club where Zoe’s hilariously raunchy monologues about Greek culture and Homeric mythology coupled with classic R&B hits have made her a legend, even among the Gods and Goddesses on Olympus.

We enter Zoe’s free-wheeling world as she and Aristophanes attend a rehearsal of OEDIPUS REX and can’t stop laughing at the incredibly gory and brutal tale of incest, murder and self-mutilation, knowing it’s exactly what Greece doesn’t need right now. Ari dubs it “Oedipus Wrecks The Theater” and Zoe sums up the moral of the story as only she can: “Don’t kill your father. And don’t fuck your mother – unless she’s really, really hot.”

Desperately needing a drink to cleanse the play from their psyches, they pop into Theo’s Club and make plans for the evening’s show before Zoe goes home for dinner with her parents, who bemoan her single lifestyle and beg her to marry a nice doctor or lawyer, which Zoe refuses to do. She deeply misses her brother Alexander who was drafted into the army and argues with her parents about it (“He’s serving Athens and the Gods, Zoe. You should be proud.” “Bullshit! He’s just another log on the bonfire of this stupid fucking war!”) and can’t wait for his enlistment to end so they can share their love of laughter and song which has bonded them like glue since they were kids.

It’s showtime and Theo’s is packed as Zoe, Chaka, Afro and the band do “I Can’t Go For That” interspersed with a hilarious, wide-ranging monologue including a drunken trip to Hades, a gangbang, a meeting with Aristotle, Socrates, Plato and Athena to find out why the world’s so fucked up and capped by Odysseus’s detailed explanation to his wife about why he’s been gone for ten years, highlighting his terrifying encounters with the Lotus Eaters, Cyclops, Circe, the Sirens, Scylla & Charybdis and Calypso and ending with a punchline that brings the house down and cements Zoe’s stature as the reigning queen of comedy.

Zoe and Ari go to the Olympics where the amusing team of Flippus, Dippus and Lippa Calda broadcast the event live on ASPN. Hunky fan favorite Hercules wows the crowd by sending the discus into orbit and the javelin rocketing past Saturn, then gives Lippa an up close and personal interview that literally chokes her up. But the biggest surprise comes in the chariot race when a sporty young girl spreads her wings and flies across the finish line, revealing herself as Nike, the Goddess of Victory. Zoe becomes fast friends with Nike and Hercules and is thrilled when they tell her how much they dig her act and that the Gods and Goddesses on Olympus never miss a show. And when Nike offers her a ride back to Athens in her flying chariot, Zoe’s on Cloud 9.

But her dizzying high comes crashing down when she learns that her brother Alexander has been killed in the war. Zoe is devastated. She knows she has to do something to stop the madness, but how? Greece is a rock-ribbed patriarchy, women have no say in anything and the army gets whatever it wants. One woman alone doesn’t stand a chance. Suddenly Zoe gets a breathtaking idea that turns the Empire on its head.

Zoe calls a meeting of women leaders from all across Greece and in a tour de force of skillful negotiating and comedy, lobbies the women to use the only weapon they have – sex – to force an end to the war. The women are aghast! They love having sex and if they refuse to fuck, the men will be furious! But Zoe is adamant. And after a feisty, comical and deeply passionate debate where every possible sex act is nixed by Zoe’s strict rules of abstinence, the women finally give in and rally behind the slogan "No Peace! No Pussy!"

But Zoe knows that before she takes on the world she needs to get the Gods on her side, so she hikes up to the Parthenon and in a moving and heartfelt speech, pleads her case to the towering statue of Athena. Suddenly Nike appears like magic and flies Zoe to Olympus – which no mortal has ever seen – to meet the real Athena, the savvy CEO of Gods Inc. And while Athena and the Board are in favor of Zoe’s plan, Ares, the vengeful God of War, is strongly opposed.

Athena takes Zoe on an eye-opening tour of Olympus, which turns out to be a ritzy resort with a golf course and country club and meets several dazzling Goddesses lounging by the pool and downs shots of 100 proof ambrosia at a psychedelic drug-fueled bash at Delta House hosted by Dionysus, the wild and crazy Party God himself.

A pumped-up Zoe returns to Athens and the “No Peace! No Pussy!” crusade explodes. At a huge antiwar concert broadcast live across Greece, Zoe’s band performs “Heatwave,” “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,” “Bring The Boys Home” and “War!” – a set of songs so powerful that soldiers on both sides lay down their arms. Suddenly the sky darkens ominously and a howling vortex driven by Ares yanks Zoe into the clouds as Nike and Hercules lead thousands of terrified women into the Parthenon for safety.

We plunge into the teeth of a ferocious storm with howling winds and towering whitecaps as Zoe grips the tiller of a small boat with a single sail, screaming in terror. She washes ashore on a tropical island and when four fat Pashas invite her to eat the intoxicating lotus fruit and and forget her quest, Zoe realizes Ares has sent her on her own deadly odyssey. Relishing the challenge, Zoe gorges on the fruit and sneers, “I’ve gotten wasted on shit ten times stronger than this stuff and was still able to do a killer second show so nice try, you twats” and hops back in her boat and sets sail shouting “Bring it on, motherfucker!”

Zoe lands on another island and as she wades ashore, the towering one-eyed Cyclops emerges from his cave hungry for flesh. But Zoe, thinking fast, proposes a deal. “If I tell you a joke that makes you laugh, will you promise not to eat me?” Cyclops says he hates jokes but Zoe cons him into and when she spins an incredibly raunchy story about Odysseus and Achilles at the siege of Troy and lands the hilarious punchline, Cyclopes explodes in laughter and lets her go.

Back on the raging seas, a ferocious six-headed monster rises on the right as a whirlpool of death spins on the left. “Scylla and Charybdis! Fucked if I do and fucked if I don’t!” Suddenly Zoe remembers Athena’s command and raises her fist in defiance. “I’m Zoe, the Goddess of Comedy! And I ain’t goin’ down like this!” Suddenly the boat speeds up and races through the gap like Crockett and Tubbs on Biscayne Bay.

The danger appears to be over as Zoe sails through calmer seas. Suddenly the alluring sound of “Love Hangover” hypnotizes her and before she knows it, she’s lost in a reverie and sailing into the rocks. “Shit! It’s the Sirens!” Zoe frantically lashes herself to the mast and as the Sirens swirl around the boat, Zoe out-sings them with “The Boss” and sails past the rocks to safety.

Battered but unbroken, Zoe lands on a gorgeous tropical island filled with exotic birds, colorful flowers and blue lagoons where she’s held in amorous captivity by the beautiful and insatiable Goddess-nymph Calypso, who held Odysseus prisoner for seven years. But Zoe doesn’t have that much time and after several romantic days in bed together, Zoe tells Calypso that the women of Greece are depending on her and she really needs to get back. And to sweeten the deal, Zoe promises to send a box of sex toys via Amazon Prime to keep her happy, including “this huge fucker than comes with a pump and shoots a gallon of mayonnaise!”

Zoe finally washes ashore in Greece and collapses on the beach, exhausted. Suddenly she smells something delicious and as she wipes the grit from her eyes, she sees a stunningly handsome man with long blond hair cooking steaks on a grill near a table set for two with a magnum of wine. Athena has sent Apollo to welcome her home and sex strike or no sex strike, Zoe makes the most of it.

Apollo and Nike accompany Zoe to the battlefront where she meets with opposing Generals Phallus and Testacles who, in the sight of the Gods, declare an end the war and make peace. Zoe is hailed as a national hero, the soldiers return home to joyous reunions, sex comes roaring back and for his willful defiance, Athena exiles Ares to Mars, where he encounters the well-hung Dr. Manhattan and the diminutive Marvin The Martian.

A huge crowd fills the amphitheater for a victory concert and with Nike and Hercules joining the band on background vocals, Zoe thanks everyone for their courageous support and brings the house down with scorching rendition of “Stoned Love.”

Ari announces he’s writing a play about Zoe called “LYSISTRATA: Disbander of Armies" and true to her word, Athena anoints Zoe the Goddess of Comedy. And after a poignant epilogue citing history’s greatest comedic authors, playwrights and entertainers and their invaluable contributions to humanity, Zoe regales her fellow immortals at the Olympus Club with hilarious monologues about the Gods and Goddesses and gives them a rousing version of “Up The Ladder To The Roof” that brings down the celestial house.

Commercial Appeal:

COMPELLING THEMES:

What’s new is actually very , very old.

Feminism, Women’s Liberation, Political Activism and Cock Blocking.

War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothin’!

The power of music and love. And the ancient truism that laughter is always the best antidote for troubled times.

FEMALE-LED CAST:

Strong, dynamic, inspirational women in lead roles.

Women banding together to fight the power and change the system in a decidedly man’s world.

Gods, Goddesses & mythological legends like you’ve never seen them before.

A gusty comedian whose defiant mission and raucous journey to immortality delights and surprises us at every turn.

HIGHLY CINEMATIC VISUALS:

Enough wine, women and song to float the Acropolis.

Hilarious comedy monologues and classic R&B hits performed live.

A behind-the scenes look at the early Olympics - revealing in more ways than one.

A fresh look at The Odyssey: Sirens, sex toys and Amazon Prime.

Ancient history rocks the house in a toga party for the ages.

Marketing Potential:

Adult audiences love a sassy, raunchy comedy and GODS & BODS delivers the goods. A wildly original romp filled with history, courage and heart, Zoe’s heroic fight for peace armed only with guts, grit, laughter and song will not only inspire viewers around the world, its iconic historical setting and dynamic cast of characters coupled with hilarious stand-up routines and show-stopping musical performances will enhance the viewing experience and bring a smile to all.