Painting inspires swashbuckling play

Chicago playwright Barbara Lhota began writing plays in college in the late '80s, and she has since written more than 13 full-length and one-act plays that have been produced. But until she wrote Los "Desaparecidos (The Vanished)" (opening Saturday at the Raven Theatre Complex) for the Chicago-based Babes with Blades, she had never even considered writing a play with so much swordplay in it.

"What happened was I went to one of those fundraisers for the Babes with Blades," Lhota says, "And at the fundraiser they showed a painting of two women (in old fashioned clothing) sword fighting."

The painting was hardly surprising. Teaching stage combat, especially swashbuckling, to women performers is the mission of the Chicago-based Babes with Blades. The painting was being shown as part of the company's second annual international playwriting competition, Joining Pen & Sword, created to encourage the writing of new plays featuring lots of women wielding weaponry.

Someone suggested Lhota write a play inspired by the painting. At first Lhota scoffed at the idea.

"I told her I don't know anything about writing plays like this," Lhota says. "I haven't even written any period pieces. All of my plays are contemporary."

But then Lhota started researching the time period of the painting, Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries.

"I read a lot of plays from the period," Lhota says, "And I started looking at all that was happening in those centuries, especially the religious intolerance. And that grabbed my attention.

"Then I asked myself, 'Why would two women be fighting?'" Lhota says. "It was in a square. It was obviously in a public place. I remember girls fighting over their honor or fighting for their family or a friend."

From that beginning grew Lhota's soap opera-like plot, a complicated story involving two sisters in Old Spain -- one a widow, the other in a bad marriage. Both sisters have been secretly trained by their father in the art of sword fighting, a skill that would come in handy for them and for Lhota, who needed plenty of excuses for rousing sword fights.

As she wrote, Lhota enjoyed herself immensely, especially the dizzying concoction she prepared, packed with comedy, plot twists, and battles to the death.

She submitted the play to Babes with Babes.

"They let me know last summer that they had accepted it," she said.

Lhota's play was paired with director and fight choreographer David Woolley and since last summer she has been busy shaping the piece, with Woolley's input.

"They have had three readings of the play," Lhota says, "each time with suggestions for rewrites."

Now Lhota's play faces the acid test, a full production. But Lhota doesn't seem worried. She clearly likes her play and she likes the idea of the Babes with Blades bringing it to life.

"You know when you put fighting in the middle of your play," she says, "you can't be wimpy about the stakes."

The Babes with Blades production of Barbara Lhota's "Desaparecidos (The Vanished)" opens Saturday at the Raven Theatre Complex, 6157 N. Clark, Chicago. For tickets and information call (773) 880-0016 or visit babeswithblades.org/losdesaparecidos.html\

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