Los Angeles — The Culture Clash men are at it again to the delight of their fans.  Their current production, a fully staged production of SAPO, based on Aristophanes’ The Frogs will debut at the Getty Villa in February. The performance features Buyepongo, an L.A.-based band whose vibrant, polyrhythmic sound fuses cumbia, merengue, punta, jazz, and funk.
Culture Clash’s (comprised of writer-actors Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas, and Herbert Siguenza) riotous adaptation takes place in three epochs as it dissects three important elements inspired by Aristophanes’ original: An ancient journey on the road to Hell, recent fire storms near the 405 and an after party in the 1970’s with a Latin rock band from the Bay Area also called SAPO (Frog), hoping to meet a record industry God but ending up somewhere between Malibu parties and the El Monte Swap Meet.
The production will be Culture Clash’s fourth dramatic encounter with the ancient playwright at the Villa, having previously performed interpretations of Artistophanes’ Peace and The Birds, as well as last year’s workshop performance of Sapo as part of the Villa Theater Lab’s series of works-in-progress.
In 405 BCE, Aristophanes’ The Frogs won first prize at the Lenaia dramatic festival and was later staged that same year at the Dionysia festival. The comedy tells the story of the god Dionysus who, despairing of the current state of Athens’ tragedians, travels to Hades with his slave Xanthias to bring Euripides back from the dead.
In Sapo, Culture Clash precariously plays on the Aristophanic structure of gods, watery journeys, deception, damsel deities, and a chorus of frogs, while also diving deep into the matter of competing playwrights, who will smartly, fiercely, seriously, and humorously wrestle with their respective and competing bodies of work and styles.

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