Penelope (Enda Walsh play)
This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (September 2011) |
Penelope is a 2010
Background
The Ruhr.2010 campaign was the successful bid to make Germany's Ruhr region the 2010 European Capital of Culture, designated by the European Union. A part of the campaign was the project Odyssey Europa (German: Odyssee Europa), where six European authors were commissioned to write a new play based on Homer's Odyssey. The six playwrights were Grzegorz Jarzyna , Péter Nádas, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Christoph Ransmayr, Roland Schimmelpfennig and Enda Walsh. The plays focus on different episodes and were intended to add up as a retelling of the epic.[1]
Plot synopsis
The play opens with the four men, Fitz, Burns, Dunne and Quinn, in an empty swimming pool, going about their daily lives with only Burns seemingly at odds with his environment. There is a blood stain on the wall which is to revealed to be from the suicide of a fifth man, Murray, only the day before. Burns attempts to scrub away the blood, but fails. A barbecue stands towards the rear of the pool; it has never been lit and is a source of curiosity and fear for the men. In a shared dream, they see it lit, heralding their death at the hands of Odysseus. Penelope, separated from the men, stands on a platform above and unseen from the pool. A television screen relays the successive addresses by the men for her perusal in a contemporaneous nod to reality television formats. Each man hopes to win her affections through their monologues, but as the day wears on and signs and premonitions of Odysseus’ return grow more ominous, they formulate a plan to work together so that one of them may succeed in winning Penelope, thus saving the others from Odysseus’ revenge.
In a final sequence Quinn performs a quick-change cabaret routine to the music of ‘Spanish Flea’ and "
Selected productions and awards
Penelope (2010) - OberhausenTheater:
See also
References
- ^ Rabitz, Cornelia (28 February 2010). "Odyssee Europa - ein Projekt bei RUHR 2010" [Odyssey Europa – a project at RUHR 2010] (in German). DW.com. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
- ISBN 978-1-84842-115-8
- ^ "Penelope - Druid Theatre".
- ^ Rumble Theatre