Peggy Flood (all photos by Paul M. Rubenstein)
Out of the mists of Hades appears Penelope, Queen of Ithaca (Peggy Flood). She wants to tell us her side of the story; the story of her husband made famous by Greek poet Homer in The Odyssey. The Penelopiad, by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood who is most famous for The Handmaid’s Tale, is being given a solid production at City Garage in Santa Monica. You know it is sure to be a heavily feminist re-telling of the epic tale, with an all-female baker’s dozen cast members playing multiple roles, under the tight and often inspired direction of Frederique Michel.
Emily Asher Kellis and Lindsay Plake
The cast at times acts as a true Greek chorus; at other times they play roles both male and female, legendary and ordinary. As Penelope sits on the sidelines and spins her truth, we see the young Penelope (Lindsay Plake) looking over the suitors for her hand in marriage. She’s not as beautiful and seductive as her cousin Helen (Marie Paquim) or rich as some other princesses—her mate is to be decided by a foot race. The diminutive Odysseus (Emily Asher Kellis) is the surprise winner, and he takes his bride back to Ithaca. There they have a loving and supporting marriage and Penelope gives her husband an heir, Telemachus (Courtney Brechemin).
The ensemble
Their happy idyll is disrupted when the wanton Helen deserts her husband and runs off with the dashing, young Paris to Troy. So starts the Trojan War and Odysseus’s fame. In the tenth year of the siege, the walls of Troy are finally breached thanks to Odysseus’s plan of placing an army inside a mammoth horse left as a gift while the Greek fleet seems to sail away. Word of this reaches Penelope and she eagerly awaits the return of her husband. And waits and waits while suitor after suitor for her hand take up residence in her house. The men are sure Odysseus is dead, hearing about his misadventures with Cyclops, sirens, witches, etc.
Marie Paquim and Peggy Flood
But Penelope stays true, coming up with ruses to outwit her suitors. She assures them she will choose one after she finishes weaving a burial shroud for her father-in-law. She weaves by day and by night, with the help of her faithful maids, she unravels what she weaved. Odysseus finally returns, disguised as an old beggar, learns of Penelope’s faithfulness and dispatches the suitors. He also dispatches Penelope’s maids, going by the wrong information given to him by his old nursemaid Eurycleia (Geraldine Fuentes). Even with that gruesome note, the happy couple is finally reunited after 20 years.
The ensemble
Director Michel uses her cast (also including Angela Beyer, Kat Johnston, Marissa Ruiz, Lea De Carmo, Loosema Hakverdian, Mary Egan and Devin Davis-Lorton) well, as they give the epic tale the epic telling it deserves on Charles Duncombe’s simple set of tiered wooden planks. Duncombe also contributed the moody lighting and Josephine Poinsot the simple black costumes with a few addons here and there to contribute to the characters.
www.citygarage.org