M. Atwood: PENELOPIAD

23. May 2023
9.00 pm
Knights' Hall Križanke
19 €

Important information

General Terms and Conditions

Note: This information pertains to a past event. For the most up-to-date information, please check our calendar.

We would like to inform all ticket holders for the performances of the play The Penelopiad, scheduled for 19, 20, and 22 September on Hell’s Courtyard that the replacement dates are known. The play will take place on 23, 24, and 26 May at 9.00 pm.  Due to the low evening temperatures, the performance will be performed in Križanke Knights’ Hall instead of Hell’s Courtyard. You can exchange your september tickets at Križanke Box Office or via e-mail blagajna@ljubljanafestival.si (it is necessary to present the ticket).
If you have a ticket for one of the dates in May, it is not necessary to exchange it.

If none of the mentioned dates suit you, you are entitled to a refund. More information can be found here.

Director: Livija Pandur
Translator and author of the adaptation: Tibor Hrs Pandur
Dramaturg: Tibor Hrs Pandur
Music: Silence (Boris Benko & Primož Hladnik)
Set designer: Sven Jonke
Costume designer: Leo Kulaš
Music director: Živa Ploj Peršuh
Movement coach: Sanja Nešković Peršin
Lighting designer: Vesna Kolarec
Language consultant: Tatjana Stanič
Assistant dramaturg (student): Brina Jeneček
Assistant costume designer: Matic Veler

Cast:
Penelope: Polona Juh
Eurycleia: Sabina Kogovšek
Tanis; Helen: Saša Pavlin Stošič
Melanto: Gaja Filač, a. g.
Clytie: Ivana Percan Kodarin, a. g.
Selene: Zala Hodnik, a. g.
Zoe: Urška Kastelic, a. g.
Alecto: Ana Plahutnik, a. g.
Chloris: Maria Shilkina, a. g.

In adapting her novel into dramatic form, Margaret Atwood (1939) noted that The Penelopiad (2007) is much more than a straightforward adaptation of The Odyssey. The narrative foregrounds the story of Penelope and her twelve maids, who were hanged on Odysseus’s order on his return from his voyage (for their alleged betrayal and relationships with suitors). Homer’s Penelope, who has been held up for centuries as a model and instructive example of the subjugation of women, is given an ingenious twist by Atwood. Penelope’s posthumous confession is countered by the hanged maids, posing two key questions: why did Odysseus have them murdered so cruelly, and what role did Penelope play in this? And more importantly, they constantly refute Penelope’s testimony, which in turn reveals the hitherto hidden mechanisms of the “official version” of The Odyssey. In a society where we still witness extremely high levels of violence against women, in terms of rape, femicide and exploitation, every brave testimony is judged. Is Penelope lying or is she telling the truth? Her confession is the only way to liberation, the only way to free herself from the prison of her story, one that was imposed upon her, the archetype of a patient and dutiful wife, “an edifying legend”, a stick used to beat other women. And like many before her, she has nothing to lose but her chains.

Livija Pandur

Important information

General Terms and Conditions