Luminous Theatre adds a little spectral fun to theatre late this summer with a free, outdoor staging of Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad. Atwood's retelling of the Odyssey from the perspective of Odysseus' wife Penelope is kind of fun. The story is framed as a tale told by ghosts. The tale is a phantom echo of a reflection on ancient history.
Luminous Theatre stages the show underneath the Holton Street Viaduct this summer. There are still a few performances left of the show, which runs for one week only. The phantoms of the past are manifest amidst the sounds of ever passing traffic both above and behind the action. It's a very beautiful space occasionally populated by curious onlookers sifting around in the background of the action. Here we see a piece of the past that has been forgotten in the ever winding march of time . . . and we're seeing it as an afterthought in the margins of our own city as we hear the ever-rpesent sounds of people going from one place to another both above and behind the action. This is a cozy, little corner of the city that is occasionally so noisy it drowns out the action of the story being presented.
The story is manifest by an all-woman ensemble that features some really great talent and a couple of particularly charming performances. Reva Fox plays Penelope--the central character in this re-framed Odyssey. Fox has just enough of a stage presence to make the character work. The problem may be that Atwood's script never quite achieves truly interesting insight about its subject, so much of the story ends up being little more than the same tale told from a different angle. Different characters do bring with them different themes that Atwood explores in an interesting way, but we don't get much more than an alternative perspective on a classic with Atwood's script. This is the odyssey of those not "on the" Odyssey, but it is still an odyssey about the odyssey...or something like that. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the script isn't as much of a revelation as I might have been personally hoping for.
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And while the script may not have been terribly memorable, the production itself is a lot of fun. The 13 women in the ensemble are brought together with admirable balance and poise by director Leda Hoffmann.
Each member of the cast except Fox plays both a members of a chorus of maidens AND some other character in the story. There are so many enjoyable moments here. Kelly Doherty again shows how fluidly she can bring a memorable and distinct personality to the stage without overpowering the script. I loved her performance as Odysseus. Marcee Doherty-Elst meets with similar success in her own distinctive way in the role of Laertes. Gwen Zupan convincingly plays Odysseus' son Telemachus from child to young man in strikingly convincing character progression, which is quite a accomplishment considering how little the character actually shows up here. Amanda Carson very much looks the role of Helen of Troy, which would probably be enough to add what's needed from the character, but she's also got the character's vanity down in a way that feels very sympathetic to her while also being deeply comic. Joanna H. Kerner, who appeared in Hashtag Mayhem at the Alchemist Theatre not too long ago once again makes a memorably musical addition to a production.
Luminous Theatre's production of The Penelopiad runs through August 27th under the Holton Street Viaduct. Performances start nightly at 8pm. For more information, visit Luminous Theatre.com.
