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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With F. Murray Abraham

Aired March 02, 2003 - 10:39   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: There's more than one way to on an anti-war demonstration. We've seen the throngs of protesters picketing in city streets, right? Well, now, the play's the thing. Actors around the globe are taking to bars, schools, churches anywhere they can find space to revisit an ancient play. Lysistrata will be read nearly a thousand times tomorrow across 56 countries. As Robyn Curnow reports, the play's old message is still relevant.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why are all those babies lying in this red bath of water?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And after I've dried him and I'm putting on his vest, I see the shell hole that shattered his chest.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We cleaned the...

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rehearsals in a north London theater for what's being billed as the first-ever worldwide theatrical act of the set. The global staging of the play, Lysistrata, with its strong anti-war and pro feminist message.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Excellent. Let's just try on that last line whether there is a way of harmonizing the voices a little bit.

CURNOW (on camera): So this ancient Greek comedy tells the story of the woman of Athens and Sparta two-and-a-half thousand years ago and how they brought an end to the Peloponnesian War by withholding from the soldier men the one thing they couldn't do without.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I swear all men, husbands, lover or gigolo...

CURNOW (voice-over): The women refused to sleep with their partners until there was peace.

SHARON BOWER, LYSISTRATA PROJECT: The basic message of the play is make love not war. The women give up sex until the men lay down their arms and talk about peace rather than go in with their guns and negotiate -- is the basic message of the play.

CURNOW: In addition to the growing anti-war movement, a theatrical peace protest that was initiated early six weeks ago by two New York actresses who wanted to voice their disapproval of any war in Iraq. KATHY LETTE, AUTHOR, "ALTER EGO": There is such a genuine alarm about the possibility of a preemptive unilateral strike that there's a hunger out there for any way to express that alarm. So we really didn't have to do very much. We just had the idea, sent the e-mails and people responded saying, "Yes, yes, what can I do?" I'm arranging three meetings in my city. You know everyone really got excited about it.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This country will not accept a serious and mounting threat to our nation, our people and our friends and allies.

CURNOW: With war talk becoming the order of the day, many feel this ancient play has a message that's still relevant today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe we women could still learn a lesson from Lysistrata. I mean if the boys launch a military strike, we could go on a sex strike and, you know, legs crossed, it just might work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why is my baby...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bright red!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bath water!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't wash him for this...

CURNOW: Well, desperate times require desperate measures say these actresses. Robyn Curnow, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well, for more on the Lysistrata Project, we're joined by Academy Award-winning actor F. Murray Abraham. He's in New York this Sunday morning -- good to see you.

F. MURRAY ABRAHAM, ACTOR: How are you doing?

WHITFIELD: I'm doing pretty good. All right, you will be joining the likes of Mercedes Ruehl and Kevin Bacon tomorrow at New York's Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theater. Why is it that so many of you very prominent actors feel like this really is an opportunity of a lifetime?

ABRAHAM: Well, first of all, maybe we should have a few laughs, you know, loosen up things a little bit, maybe help people think in a new way about this situation. But you know, we're actors and we're born to communicate. Ronald Reagan was an actor and he was known as the great communicator and he communicated what he felt a lot of people wanted to hear. And I feel the same way in considering how many people are marching.

WHITFIELD: And what makes this interesting is this really is going to be kind of in your face no matter where you go across the country, across the 50 U.S. States, 56 countries across the world, somewhere you just might bump into this reading taking place, right?

ABRAHAM: Well, we hope so. I think that we should remember that this is not against -- this is just an opportunity to -- I would like people to think a little differently, a new way. I'd like President Bush to think maybe there's another way and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and Cheney to think that maybe Kissinger was wrong when he says we had to go in there because he was wrong about Vietnam.

And it's possible, just if we could just think one more time with these real smart men in power, to think of a new way, maybe, to make -- I think it would be such a rush of affection for the United States if we could figure a way to solve this problem without war. I think people would be so happy and delighted with America for what it would do.

I think that also, if these men decided that they have to go in there and fight, I want them to send their own children and grandchildren. I want them to not send a bunch of strangers' kids in there to fight and die. I'd like to go, like they did in the time of Lysistrata, to send their generals and themselves into the head of that army. I'd like President Bush to get a gun in his hands. I'll go with him. I can't think of anything better than to die in place of some young kid who's just beginning their lives.

WHITFIELD: It sounds like you and Congressman Charles Rangel are speaking, you know, of the same might and same point-of-view, so to speak.

ABRAHAM: Well, I don't know. I don't follow too much. I'm not a politician. I just would like to see us lead the war, this country, this world, in a better way than just killing those people. Maybe we can find a way out and I trust that the president will try, just give it one more shot, some revolutionary way of not doing this, of bringing all those kids back home safely.

WHITFIELD: Now, you all really are putting a new spin, so to speak, on this ancient play, this ancient Greek play, and that the message isn't necessarily, you know, refraining from war, make love not war, but instead you've kind of taken it a step further, haven't you? It's a little different, but do you find that it still has the same relevance or the objective is still primarily the same?

ABRAHAM: Well, I'd like to think that it's still relevant. The idea that you can make love and not war really is a pretty -- it's pretty neat. I think that what we're trying to do -- I would like to see happen -- is just a new way of looking at this whole world because it's really -- I mean, that thing in Korea, the thing that's happening here, the thing in Israel, the thing that's all over the world. There must be a new way of thinking and I think we haven't given that a chance. That's what I'm asking. And if you can do a play like this that's funny about a very serious situation, maybe that's a little breakthrough.

I have two brothers buried in the military cemetery in Texas. I don't want to see any more of that. WHITFIELD: Does it concern you, however, that the attention that you'll be getting will be from the American public and from, you know, laymen and women all across the world but not necessarily from the administrations that make a difference, in the case of the United States, of course, the Bush administration because already President Bush has made it very clear that a number of the protests that have taken place in the past few weeks really is not changing his mind?

ABRAHAM: Well, he says that. I believe he's sincere, but it's possible that he will change his mind. Maybe he'll reconsider. If it's not -- if he doesn't feel as though he's being attacked all of the time, if he's just being reasoned with. And I don't have an answer for that situation, but I swear, I believe there is one and it can come out of this administration.

I have to believe that, and I tell you, as a Texan, I know that we have a very maverick way of thinking and he just might come up with something that will surprise a lot of people and I really -- I look forward to that amazing miracle happening. I don't want to talk in terms of miracles. I think this is a very serious situation. But I do want to talk in terms of this man becoming a man of the hour and I think this is way to do it.

WHITFIELD: All right, F. Murray Abraham, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Folks will get a chance to see you tomorrow in Brooklyn.

ABRAHAM: Thanks a lot.

WHITFIELD: All right, well, thanks a lot.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired March 2, 2003 - 10:39   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: There's more than one way to on an anti-war demonstration. We've seen the throngs of protesters picketing in city streets, right? Well, now, the play's the thing. Actors around the globe are taking to bars, schools, churches anywhere they can find space to revisit an ancient play. Lysistrata will be read nearly a thousand times tomorrow across 56 countries. As Robyn Curnow reports, the play's old message is still relevant.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why are all those babies lying in this red bath of water?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And after I've dried him and I'm putting on his vest, I see the shell hole that shattered his chest.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We cleaned the...

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rehearsals in a north London theater for what's being billed as the first-ever worldwide theatrical act of the set. The global staging of the play, Lysistrata, with its strong anti-war and pro feminist message.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Excellent. Let's just try on that last line whether there is a way of harmonizing the voices a little bit.

CURNOW (on camera): So this ancient Greek comedy tells the story of the woman of Athens and Sparta two-and-a-half thousand years ago and how they brought an end to the Peloponnesian War by withholding from the soldier men the one thing they couldn't do without.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I swear all men, husbands, lover or gigolo...

CURNOW (voice-over): The women refused to sleep with their partners until there was peace.

SHARON BOWER, LYSISTRATA PROJECT: The basic message of the play is make love not war. The women give up sex until the men lay down their arms and talk about peace rather than go in with their guns and negotiate -- is the basic message of the play.

CURNOW: In addition to the growing anti-war movement, a theatrical peace protest that was initiated early six weeks ago by two New York actresses who wanted to voice their disapproval of any war in Iraq. KATHY LETTE, AUTHOR, "ALTER EGO": There is such a genuine alarm about the possibility of a preemptive unilateral strike that there's a hunger out there for any way to express that alarm. So we really didn't have to do very much. We just had the idea, sent the e-mails and people responded saying, "Yes, yes, what can I do?" I'm arranging three meetings in my city. You know everyone really got excited about it.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This country will not accept a serious and mounting threat to our nation, our people and our friends and allies.

CURNOW: With war talk becoming the order of the day, many feel this ancient play has a message that's still relevant today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe we women could still learn a lesson from Lysistrata. I mean if the boys launch a military strike, we could go on a sex strike and, you know, legs crossed, it just might work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why is my baby...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bright red!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bath water!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't wash him for this...

CURNOW: Well, desperate times require desperate measures say these actresses. Robyn Curnow, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well, for more on the Lysistrata Project, we're joined by Academy Award-winning actor F. Murray Abraham. He's in New York this Sunday morning -- good to see you.

F. MURRAY ABRAHAM, ACTOR: How are you doing?

WHITFIELD: I'm doing pretty good. All right, you will be joining the likes of Mercedes Ruehl and Kevin Bacon tomorrow at New York's Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theater. Why is it that so many of you very prominent actors feel like this really is an opportunity of a lifetime?

ABRAHAM: Well, first of all, maybe we should have a few laughs, you know, loosen up things a little bit, maybe help people think in a new way about this situation. But you know, we're actors and we're born to communicate. Ronald Reagan was an actor and he was known as the great communicator and he communicated what he felt a lot of people wanted to hear. And I feel the same way in considering how many people are marching.

WHITFIELD: And what makes this interesting is this really is going to be kind of in your face no matter where you go across the country, across the 50 U.S. States, 56 countries across the world, somewhere you just might bump into this reading taking place, right?

ABRAHAM: Well, we hope so. I think that we should remember that this is not against -- this is just an opportunity to -- I would like people to think a little differently, a new way. I'd like President Bush to think maybe there's another way and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and Cheney to think that maybe Kissinger was wrong when he says we had to go in there because he was wrong about Vietnam.

And it's possible, just if we could just think one more time with these real smart men in power, to think of a new way, maybe, to make -- I think it would be such a rush of affection for the United States if we could figure a way to solve this problem without war. I think people would be so happy and delighted with America for what it would do.

I think that also, if these men decided that they have to go in there and fight, I want them to send their own children and grandchildren. I want them to not send a bunch of strangers' kids in there to fight and die. I'd like to go, like they did in the time of Lysistrata, to send their generals and themselves into the head of that army. I'd like President Bush to get a gun in his hands. I'll go with him. I can't think of anything better than to die in place of some young kid who's just beginning their lives.

WHITFIELD: It sounds like you and Congressman Charles Rangel are speaking, you know, of the same might and same point-of-view, so to speak.

ABRAHAM: Well, I don't know. I don't follow too much. I'm not a politician. I just would like to see us lead the war, this country, this world, in a better way than just killing those people. Maybe we can find a way out and I trust that the president will try, just give it one more shot, some revolutionary way of not doing this, of bringing all those kids back home safely.

WHITFIELD: Now, you all really are putting a new spin, so to speak, on this ancient play, this ancient Greek play, and that the message isn't necessarily, you know, refraining from war, make love not war, but instead you've kind of taken it a step further, haven't you? It's a little different, but do you find that it still has the same relevance or the objective is still primarily the same?

ABRAHAM: Well, I'd like to think that it's still relevant. The idea that you can make love and not war really is a pretty -- it's pretty neat. I think that what we're trying to do -- I would like to see happen -- is just a new way of looking at this whole world because it's really -- I mean, that thing in Korea, the thing that's happening here, the thing in Israel, the thing that's all over the world. There must be a new way of thinking and I think we haven't given that a chance. That's what I'm asking. And if you can do a play like this that's funny about a very serious situation, maybe that's a little breakthrough.

I have two brothers buried in the military cemetery in Texas. I don't want to see any more of that. WHITFIELD: Does it concern you, however, that the attention that you'll be getting will be from the American public and from, you know, laymen and women all across the world but not necessarily from the administrations that make a difference, in the case of the United States, of course, the Bush administration because already President Bush has made it very clear that a number of the protests that have taken place in the past few weeks really is not changing his mind?

ABRAHAM: Well, he says that. I believe he's sincere, but it's possible that he will change his mind. Maybe he'll reconsider. If it's not -- if he doesn't feel as though he's being attacked all of the time, if he's just being reasoned with. And I don't have an answer for that situation, but I swear, I believe there is one and it can come out of this administration.

I have to believe that, and I tell you, as a Texan, I know that we have a very maverick way of thinking and he just might come up with something that will surprise a lot of people and I really -- I look forward to that amazing miracle happening. I don't want to talk in terms of miracles. I think this is a very serious situation. But I do want to talk in terms of this man becoming a man of the hour and I think this is way to do it.

WHITFIELD: All right, F. Murray Abraham, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Folks will get a chance to see you tomorrow in Brooklyn.

ABRAHAM: Thanks a lot.

WHITFIELD: All right, well, thanks a lot.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com