'The Odyssey' Reimagined
Margaret Atwood’s 'The Penelopiad' opens Muhlenberg College’s Theatre & Dance season, Sept. 26-29By: Emma McKinley ’25 Tuesday, September 24, 2024 08:45 PM
Rehearsal for 'The Penelopiad.'When it comes to epic Greek tales of misadventure, it would be hard to beat The Odyssey. Homer’s ancient story of sirens, sorceresses, and sea creatures has secured a foothold in western literature that has lasted for nearly three thousand years. But when this heroic tale comes to the stage this month at Muhlenberg College, Odysseus won’t be the hero.
It’s his wife Penelope who will stand center stage.
“Penelope was definitely a secondary figure to Odysseus, but we’re telling the main story from Penelope’s point of view,” says Jessica Bostock, the director and choreographer of The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood’s modern feminist adaptation of The Odyssey. “From her point of view, all the adventures of Odysseus are just rumors.”
The Penelopiad opens Muhlenberg’s 2024-25 Theatre & Dance season, Sept. 26-29. The play focuses on Penelope and reimagines what happened from her perspective during the 20 years of Odysseus’s absence, and redefines the narrative surrounding Penelope. “Oftentimes, Penelope is used as a marker of the way women should act and should be,” says assistant director Bryson Brunson. Atwood shows us a more complicated version of this classic character.
Alex Piteris, the actor who plays Penelope, says she found this more complex understanding of the character intriguing. “She's still making mistakes; she's not perfect,” Piteris says. “But you're still seeing everything she has to deal with as a woman of this time.”
In highlighting the story of Penelope, The Penelopiad also focuses on the stories of her 12 trusted maids — women who are slaughtered on Odysseus’s orders, but barely mentioned in Homer’s version of the story. Brunson wants audiences to walk away not only knowing the names of the 12 maids, but understanding Penelope’s own complicity in their murders. “Penelope is a victim of her circumstance, but also a perpetrator of violence.”
“The maids aren't anonymous anymore,” Brunson says. “Melantho, Tanis, Kerthia, Iole, Celandine, Klytie, Selene, Zoe, Alecto, Chloris, Phasiana, and Narcissa. Remember their names.”
Margaret Atwood adapted the play from her own novella. She is best known for her novel The Handmaid’s Tale, recently adapted into a critically acclaimed Hulu original series. The two works grapple with similar themes of women’s rights, domestic violence, and the patriarchy.
For actor Aidan C. White, Atwood’s reimagination of the original Greek myth necessitated a different strategy for portraying the legendary character of Odysseus. Though Odysseus is regarded as one of the foremost Greek heroes, he is portrayed as the primary antagonist of The Penelopiad. “I think, in his own view, everything he does is completely justified,” White says. “I do think he's aiming for good things, primarily for himself and his family.”
White also sees Odysseus’s story as an exemplification of Atwood’s broader themes in relation to reimagining The Odyssey. “I think the play does a great job of pulling people off the pedestal, especially the men of ancient Greece,” says White. “Even Zeus himself was deeply flawed.”
As for the audience, Bostock hopes that their experience will be both meaningful and entertaining. “I hope they enjoy being caught up in the story,” she says. “There’s a lot of different complicated emotions in this piece, and that mirrors life. I hope that they just enjoy the ride.”
The Penelopiad runs Sept. 26-29 in the Studio Theatre, in the Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance at Muhlenberg College. Showtimes are Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Public tickets are $15. Youth tickets and tickets for LVAIC students, faculty and staff are $8. Tickets and information are available at muhlenberg.edu/seeashow or 484-664-3333.
About the Muhlenberg College Theatre & Dance Department
Muhlenberg offers Bachelor of Arts degrees in theatre and dance. The Princeton Review ranked Muhlenberg’s theatre program in the top twelve in the nation for eight years in a row, and Fiske Guide to Colleges lists both the theatre and dance programs among the top small college programs in the United States. Muhlenberg is one of only eight colleges to be listed in Fiske for both theatre and dance.
About Muhlenberg College
Founded in 1848, Muhlenberg is a highly selective, private liberal arts college offering baccalaureate and graduate programs. With an enrollment of nearly 2,000 students, Muhlenberg College is dedicated to shaping creative, compassionate, collaborative leaders through rigorous academic programs in the arts, humanities, natural sciences and social sciences; selected preprofessional programs, including accounting, business, education and public health; and progressive workforce-focused post-baccalaureate certificates and master’s degrees. Located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, approximately 90 miles west of New York City, Muhlenberg is a member of the Centennial Conference, competing in 23 varsity sports. Muhlenberg is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
