The Penelopiad...

[fajrdrako]

Thanks to commodorified and auriaephiala, I went to see The Penelopeiad at the National Arts Centre last night. Subtitled: From Hades, Penelope and her Maids tell the story of their lives, though actually the Maids didn't tell their own story at all.

I enjoyed it very much - even though I don't like Margaret Atwood's writing and didn't like Penelope, who is very much the main character - most of the play is her monologue.

Some of the staging, or most of the staging, was brilliant. Minimalist and clever. My favourite bits were done with lighting - water rippling across the stage, or a spider-web growing around Penelope as she sits on the stage. Penelope wears a plain red dress, very striking; most of the other characters wear earth tones, except her mother, the Niaid, who wears blue, and Helen of Troy, who wears gold. There was a wonderful scene where Penelope is drowning, and survives, saved by a flock of ducks - beautifully staged. And best of all, the deaths of the handmaidens by hanging - very dramatic, and beautifully acted. I was reminded of Frank Miller's art.

Other bits of staging flopped in absurdity. King Laertes walking around with a stuffed goat? A sailor's song and dance routine that looked as if it came out of South Pacific?

All the parts were played by women, which made me think of the Tarakazuka shows I was reading about. But since this was sort of modernistic Greek tragedy, not musical comedy - though it was musical, and sometimes farcical - I was left not really sure what to make of it. I think the use of women in men's roles was meant to emphasize the gender differences by bringing attention to it, and as such, it worked well. Sarah Malin as Odysseus was particularly good, once you got over the effect of seeing such a girlish Odysseus.

I did think that the actress who played Penelope, Penny Downie, should play Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan. Long red hair, a sense of presence - but not regality. Pictures I found of her online didn't reflect this.... Though this one comes close. She was most attractive.

Why didn't I like Penelope? Partly because she was passive. Passivity bothers me, especially in protagonists. Most of the play is the story of her misfortunes, and her purpose in life seemed to be primarily to bewail her love of her husband Odysseus, who just didn't come home... and didn't come home... and didn't come home.... I felt as if I was watching a country-western song. I wanted to say: woman, leave him to his chosen destiny, and make your own life with good grace. Don't begrudge him his.

Moreover, Penelope didn't seem to like or love anyone she knew. Her parents, her cousin, Odysseus' parents, the people of Ithica - she only loved her twelve slave-maidens and her son Telemachus, and even then, the play emphasizes her guilt for the slave-maidens and her estrangement from her son. I found this... less than endearing. Even with her love for Odysseus, it was implied that she was beguiled by his charm and his storytelling, but that she doubted he was worthy of her love.

Now, her distaste for those around her seems to be simply because they were uncaring and unworthy of affection. But when everyone she meets reflects this, it made me feel that the problem was not with them, it was with Penelope, that she was cold.

Odysseus triumphed over adversity and carried on as a hero. Penelope faced adversity and triumphed - over and over - and saw it as failure. Was it that Atwood thought it was failure? Or that Homer did? No, I don't think Homer did, but I'm no expert on the Odyssey, which I've only read in bits and pieces. Must do something about that.

I think there are different ways of presenting the Odyssey with a modern feminist slant, and I'd rather do it by showing how Penelope was a clever woman who succeeded in her clever strategems, rather than showing her complaints about her life.

After the show, we went and had coffee at the NAC. I love that place. commorified looked glamorous in a black dress, and the restaurant - outfitted in chrome, white, and touches of blue glass and blue light - is always a pleasure to be in. It overlooks the canal, except that at 10 p.m., you don't really see the canal very clearly.

I was going to bravely forego dessert, but they had creme brulee on the menu - what's a person to do? ...It was utterly wonderful. A perfect post-birthday outing.

Comments

Penelope

[abrakadabrah.livejournal.com]

It's definitely not Homer, it's Atwood.

Here's Edwin Muir on Penelope:

The Return of Odysseus

The doors flapped open in Odysseus' house,
The lolling latches gave to every hand,
Let traitor, babbler, tout and bargainer in.
The rooms and passages resounded
With ease and chaos of a public market,
The walls mere walls to lean on as you talked,
Spat on the floor, surveyed some newcomers
With an absent eye. There you could be yourself.
Dust in the nooks, weeds nodding in the yard,
The thick walls crumbling. Even the cattle came
About the doors with mild familiar stare
As if this were their place.
All round the island stretched the clean blue sea.

Sole at the house's heart, Penelope
Sat at her chosen task, endless undoing
Of endless doing, endless weaving, unweaving,
In the clean chamber. Still her loom ran empty
Day after day. She thought: 'Here I do nothing
Or less than nothing, making an emptiness
Amid disorder, weaving, unweaving the lie
The day demands. Odysseus, this is duty,
To do and undo, to keep a vacant gate
Where order and right and hope and peace can enter.'

She wove and unwove and did not know
That even then Odysseus on the long
And winding road of the world was on his way.

--Edwin Muir, The Return of Odysseus

Re: Penelope

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That's quite wonderful - I like that. Thank you. It puts Atwood's version to shame.

I always think there's something anti-feminist about Atwood: woman-as-victim rather than woman-as-creator. But maybe it's mostly that I don't much like the way she puts words together.

After I'd gone on at some length, at work, on what I thought of the play, my coworker Jenn remarked, "Think how much trouble they'd have been saved if Penelope had text messaging."

[omnivorously.livejournal.com]

*does not read your whole post* When we were doing the Odyssey in Greek class, The Penelopiad had just come out, and the prof lent us his copy, and I remember really wishing I could see it myself. *sigh* I wouldn't have time/make time even if it were in Philly.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I envy those Greek classes. The closest I ever came was a seminar course on Herodotus - which was terrific.

[omnivorously.livejournal.com]

I hope you get the chance some time, yourself!

Was the seminar on the Greek language? Or all in English?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The course I took on Herodotus was all in English; the book was in translation. (We used the Penguin edition.) Though held in the classics department, it was a history course rather than a language course. The professor holding it was Trevor Hodge, who was terrific.