We were ready for a nice Friday night with babysitters settled in and tickets to the opening night of the English Theatre Season at the National Arts Centre. There was some hoopla about the play since it was a Canadian premiere of a Margaret Atwood play. The play is collaboration between NAC and the Royal Shakespeare Company. It had premiered in London with mixed reviews. <\/p>\n
The theatre was comfortably full with Atwood in attendance. We tried to see if there were any other Ottawa literary artists there as well, but then we realised that we don\u2019t know what any of them look like even if they were. We only recognised Jian Ghomeshi.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t have a good history with NAC English Theatre since the best plays I\u2019ve seen there were somewhere between \u201cstrong\u201d and \u201csolid\u201d. Nothing to talk about at dinner parties years later. Penelopiad is the best play I\u2019ve seen there so far and I would describe it as \u201cgripping\u201d. Whatever the problems seem to have been in London it looks like they\u2019ve fixed them. The acting was fantastic and the scenery and props brilliant. <\/p>\n
The story is what one comes to expect from Atwood. A lot of feminism, some pessimism and just enough of humour to make it stick when you throw it at the ceiling. There was a lot of praise for the actress who played Penelope, and it was certainly deserved, but it was the chorus that did it for me. I loved the shape shifting, the dance and song, the pedantic detail that went into each character even if the character only existed for several minutes. One of the very interesting aspects was the women portraying men. They were excellent in portraying straightforward characters, but the portrayal of Odysseus was brilliant. I don\u2019t really understand how they did it, but then again I am not a playwright so I don\u2019t need to know that.<\/p>\n
So yes, I do recommend the play if you get a chance to see it. It is nothing new, but it is solid. Am I going to still be talking about this play three years from now? I don\u2019t know, ask me in three years. You\u2019ve got to love Atwood, though. Who else have we got to go on CBC on a Sunday morning and say things like \u201cEveryone thinks that being Byronic is romantic unless you\u2019re Byron\u201d?<\/p>\n