{"id":684,"date":"2007-10-20T20:35:24","date_gmt":"2007-10-21T01:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/2007\/10\/20\/review-the-penelopiad-by-margaret-atwood\/"},"modified":"2007-10-20T20:35:24","modified_gmt":"2007-10-21T01:35:24","slug":"review-the-penelopiad-by-margaret-atwood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/2007\/10\/20\/review-the-penelopiad-by-margaret-atwood\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Penelopiad<\/em><\/strong><\/a>
\nBy Margaret Atwood
\nBased on the book The Penelopiad<\/em> by Margaret Atwood<\/p>\n

The Cast<\/strong>
\nMaid (Telemachus) MOJISOLA ADEBAYO<\/a>
\nMaid – Melantho JADE ANOUKA<\/a>
\nMaid – Selene LISA KAREN COX<\/a>
\nMaid (Antinous) DERBHLE CROTTY<\/a>
\nMaid (Naiad mother\/Suitor) PHILIPPA DOMVILLE<\/a>
\nPenelope PENNY DOWNIE<\/a>
\nMaid (Eurycleia) KATE HENNIG<\/a>
\nMaid – Narcissa (The Oracle) PAULINE HUTTON<\/a>
\nMaid (Icarius\/Suitor) CORRINE KOSLO<\/a>
\nMaid (Odysseus) SARAH MALIN<\/a>
\nMaid (Laertes\/Suitor) PAMELA MATTHEWS<\/a>
\nMaid (Helen Of Troy\/Suitor) KELLY McINTOSH<\/a>
\nMaid – Kerthia (Anticleia\/Suitor) JENNY YOUNG<\/a><\/p>\n

ALL OTHER PARTS PLAYED BY MEMBERS OF THE COMPANY<\/p>\n

MUSICIANS
\nCELLO SUZANNE WALDEN
\nPERCUSSION ANDREW HERBERT
\nKEYBOARD\/PERCUSSION MICHAEL CRYNE<\/p>\n

DIRECTION AND MOVEMENT BY JOSETTE BUSHELL-MINGO<\/a>
\nDESIGNED BY ROSA MAGGIORA<\/a>
\nLIGHTING DESIGNED BY BONNIE BEECHER<\/a>
\nDRAMATURG NICOLA WILSON<\/a>
\nMUSIC BY WARREN WILLS<\/a>
\nSOUND DESIGNED BY MARTIN SLAVIN<\/a>
\nCHOREOGRAPHY BY VERONICA TENNANT<\/a>
\nFIGHTS BY ALISON DE BURGH<\/a>
\nASSISTANT DIRECTOR RAE MCKEN<\/a>
\nMUSIC DIRECTOR MICHAEL CRYNE<\/a>
\nCOMPANY VOICE WORK BY CHARMIAN GRADWELL
\nCOMPANY STAGE MANAGER KATIE VINE<\/a>
\nDEPUTY STAGE MANAGER GABRIELLE SANDERS<\/a>
\nASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER SALLY HUGHES<\/a><\/p>\n

The performance is approximately 1 hour 45 minutes in length.
\nThere is no interval.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Note all links above relate to the NAC site, which at some point, will remove them.)<\/p>\n

This well-written, witty, clever, beautifully choreographed and performed play is the stage version of a chick-flick. I say this because clusters of women were rhapsodizing about it after the show, while their male counterparts (alas, including yours truly) appeared to be reacting to it with a certain amount of critical discernment. While my wife thought it was wonderful, I thought it was too narrative; while her female pals were rhapsodizing, my pals and I were trying not to sound like mindless beer-swilling jock axe murderers, ready to return home after a swing around the Peloponnesus and hang them en masse<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So if we were to review this fairly, it would be a case of I said\/she said, and I would obviously loose, as the modern definition of married man, as we all know, is guy-who-is-always-wrong. Since we are not being fair (out of self defense) I shall declare here and now that my wife (may she be praised) is not in agreement with this review, but has condescended to allow me to live long enough to post it here.<\/p>\n

Let’s admit, right off the top that this play has been hyped to the clouds of Olympus, and no one, not even the mighty Atwood should be required to live up to this level of hype. First there was the book, written as part of an international authors’ initiative (What happened to the rest of those books?) Then there was the co-production with the Royal Shakespeare Company. The printed program is lavished with scholarly essays on the play, the concept, the author. What’s next? Brad and Angelina?<\/p>\n

Given that level of hype, and the all-female cast, it is not surprising that males, at least, would approach this showpiece with a certain degree of caution, as I did. It is, after all, a pretty thorough take down of Odysseus, whom Atwood depicts as being pretty impulsive and thoughtless towards the females in his wake; yet Atwood spends considerable time showing how Penelope’s timidity and hesitation were more responsible than her house-clearing husband’s impulsiveness for the deaths of the maids.<\/p>\n

The movement, music, choral work, costume, lighting, sound and set design were all effective, even inspired. Penny Downie as Penelope was remarkable. She projected the wit and angst of the character like armour. I believed her. I think it would have been far more effective to have a male playing Odysseus, as a single male would have been an interesting catastrophic catalyst.<\/p>\n

The weakest element of the play from my point of view was the long narrative sections. As soon as somebody starts narrating, the action turns off. I am not talking about physical action; I am referring to dramatic action. Narration is the most primitive form of theatre; it is tell, not show. Theatre is showing, otherwise, we might just as well be reading this in a novella, as most of us had already.<\/p>\n

There has been some critical complaining about the sailor chorus line. I liked that device, although I must say that in my celtic experience, females in white sailor outfits are usually about to dance the hornpipe—a somewhat comic situation in my book, as the hornpipe was traditionally a somewhat studly male dance.<\/p>\n

I know the females in our group really liked this play. They must have a great tolerance for narration, for I really had problems with that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Penelopiad By Margaret Atwood Based on the book The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood The Cast Maid (Telemachus) MOJISOLA ADEBAYO Maid – Melantho JADE ANOUKA Maid – Selene LISA KAREN COX Maid (Antinous) DERBHLE CROTTY Maid (Naiad mother\/Suitor) PHILIPPA DOMVILLE … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,4],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nac","category-reviews","tag-professional-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}