Stork Theatre
30 June 2013
La Mama Courthouse
to 7 July
lamama.com.au
Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale and so much more) wrote The Penelopiad as a novel in 2005 and it was soon adapted for theatre.
Homer's Odessy tells the tale from Odysseus point of view and Penelope is the pretty little thing waiting at home. Attwood tells it from Penelope's point of view, with the bonus of telling it from after death, when she has the benefit of hindsight. It retains its "read me" origins, but seeing it performed is almost like having the author read it to you, in all the voices that she imagined.
Stork Theatre's production is selling out because it's terrific.
They've decreased the 12 maids to three and it's set in a spirit world cabaret club where the maids (Andi Snelling, Mia Landgren, Jane Barry) play all the parts as Penelope (Carolyn Bock) tells us what it was really like back in Ithaca while her husband went to save Helen, built a big wooden horse and was tempted by all sorts on the way home.
