Stage: The Penelopia York Theatre Royal Sarah Freeman 4/5
Like much classic literature the female voices in the Odyssey are at best muted as the titular hero embarks on a gruelling 10-year journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, and his ultimate fight to reclaim his kingdom and family.
His wife Penelope, characterised as the ultimate faithful wife, is barely afforded a footnote as she surrounds herself with her own hareem of faithful servants who are complicit in her skillful manipulation of an army of suitors battling for her attention.
Margaret Atwood’s novella, first published in 2005 as part of a series reimagining ancient myths, set out to right that wrong. This adaptation by York Theatre Royal puts Penelope centre stage as she reflects on her life - and her errant husband - from the depths of Hades.
In director Juliet Forster’s hands, it is a beautiful production, with Amelia Bullmore delivering a masterly performance in the title role as a witty, wise and clearly wronged woman. Equally watchable is her circus troupe of maids, who rope-climb, sing and dance their way through this alternative Odyssey, holding the audience’s attention against a stripped-back set.
There are problems, though. With Penelope largely a narrator it is difficult to sustain the intensity across what is essentially a two-hour monologue.
The flashback scenes, in which the maids transform into the suitors vying for Penelope’s attention or recreate Odysseus’s adventures, occasionally evoke the theatricality of Emma Rice’s Wise Children. But the transitions can feel disjointed and jarring, with a tap-dancing number seeming particularly incongruous.
As a result, the production’s ambition and execution never quite align. While the rape and execution of the maids finally gets its own chapter, Penelope’s suggestion that she may not have been the faithful wife history has made her out to be fails to land with the force it might have done.
The Penelopiad gives the women of The Odyssey back their voices, but this adaptation doesn’t always make the most of what they have to say.
To October 31.