Starring Megan Follows. Written by Margaret Atwood. Directed by Kelly Thornton. Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, to Jan. 29.
“I’ve gotta go to Troy,” grouses Kelli Fox’s Odysseus to Megan Follows’ Penelope early in The Penelopiad. The way she delivers that line, Fox could be an annoyed husband telling his wife he’s been called into work. Playing the devious Greek hero in Nightwood Theatre’s exuberant production, Fox is so funny, and does such an accurate parody of macho swagger and charm, that at times she nearly steals the show from Follows.
But ultimately, this is Penelope’s tale—her wry wife’s-eye-view of the events in The Odyssey—and Follows tells that story with all of Margaret Atwood’s sardonic wit and sharp insight. Fox and 11 other actresses—some of Toronto’s best—offer sparkling support as Penelope’s doomed maids, a singing, dancing Greek chorus who act out her story and plead their own case. Director Kelly Thornton plays up the domestic comedy of the first act to the point of goofiness—aided by Denyse Karn’s wacky costumes—but things grow suitably dark in act two. By then, we’re no longer watching a classical spoof, but a moving cri de coeur on behalf of all misunderstood women and faceless female victims.
