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Penelope is a 2010 tragicomedy play written by Irish playwright Enda Walsh. The play concerns the attempts of four men seeking to win over Penelope in the absence of her warrior husband, Odysseus, who has been away for the previous twenty years fighting the Trojan wars. It was commissioned for the Ruhr.2010 campaign as one of six new plays based on the Odyssey.
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]
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 "A Taste of Honey" by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass as the others aid his performance. Quinn costumes himself as male and female lovers of exceptional note, such as Napoleon and Josephine and Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara, but when he strips down to his toga, as Eros, the Greek god of love, he is stabbed by Burns. Dunne and Fitz take part in the stabbing and Quinn is killed. Burns makes a final address to Penelope in which he argues for their collective redemption through love and human affection. Burns concludes his speech with the words “love is saved,” [2] and at this moment "the barbecue goes up in flames. As their dream predicted, it begins from its legs and quickly spreads to the rest of the frame and grill" thus signaling the deaths of the men as above them Penelope withdraws from the stage "and into her new future".
Penelope (2010) - OberhausenTheater: RUHR.2010, Druid Theatre Company, Galway. [3] Winner of Irish Times Theatre Awards Best Supporting Actor Award for Mikel Murfi. Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Festival (Fringe First winner 2010). World Tour included Helsinki, New York and London. Steppenwolf Theater, Chicago (2011). The Canadian premiere was produced by Rumble Theatre [4] in Vancouver, British Columbia (2013).
Circe is an enchantress and a minor goddess in ancient Greek mythology and religion. In most accounts, Circe is described as the daughter of the sun god Helios and the Oceanid nymph Perse. Circe was renowned for her vast knowledge of potions and herbs. Through the use of these and a magic wand or staff, she would transform her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals.
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the Iliad, the poem is divided into 24 books. It follows the Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the Trojan War. After the war, which lasted ten years, his journey from Troy to Ithaca, via Africa and southern Europe, lasted for ten additional years during which time he encountered many perils and all of his crewmates were killed. In his absence, Odysseus was assumed dead, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus had to contend with a group of unruly suitors who were competing for Penelope's hand in marriage.
In Greek and Roman mythology, Odysseus, also known by the Latin variant Ulysses, is a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in that same epic cycle.
The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the 12th or 13th century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology, and it has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably Homer's Iliad. The core of the Iliad describes a period of four days and two nights in the tenth year of the decade-long siege of Troy; the Odyssey describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the war's heroes. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, which have survived through fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid.
The Druid Theatre Company, referred to as Druid, is an Irish theatre company, based in Galway, Ireland.
Events from the year 1996 in Ireland.
Penelope is the faithful wife of Odysseus in Homer's epic poem Odyssey.
The World's Desire is a fantasy novel first published in 1890 and written by H. Rider Haggard and Andrew Lang. It was published in paperback by Ballantine Books as the fortieth volume of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in January 1972.
The Penelopiad is a novella by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. It was published in 2005 as part of the first set of books in the Canongate Myth Series where contemporary authors rewrite ancient myths. In The Penelopiad, Penelope reminisces on the events of the Odyssey, life in Hades, Odysseus, Helen of Troy, and her relationships with her parents. A Greek chorus of the twelve maids, who Odysseus believed were disloyal and whom Telemachus hanged, interrupt Penelope's narrative to express their view on events. The maids' interludes use a new genre each time, including a jump-rope rhyme, a lament, an idyll, a ballad, a lecture, a court trial and several types of songs.
Nancy Harris is an Irish playwright and screenwriter. She was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2012.
Home Sweet Homer is a 1976 musical with a book by Roland Kibbee and Albert Marre, lyrics by Charles Burr and Forman Brown, and music by Mitch Leigh.
Ulysses is a 1954 fantasy-adventure film based on Homer's epic poem Odyssey. The film was directed by Mario Camerini, who co-wrote the screenplay with writer Franco Brusati. The original choice for director was Georg Wilhelm Pabst but he quit at the last minute. The film's cinematographer Mario Bava co-directed the cyclops Polyphemus segment (uncredited).
Enda Walsh is an Irish playwright.
Circe, an enchantress and minor goddess in Greek mythology, appears often in 20th and 21st century popular culture, either under her own name or as a sorceress with similar powers under others. Post-Classical amplifications and reinterpretations of that story and others involving her are dealt with in the main article. The instances mentioned here are more recent allusions and adaptations.
Penelope Skinner is a British playwright. Born in 1978, she came to prominence after her play Fucked was first produced in 2008 at the Old Red Lion Theatre and the Edinburgh Festival to critical acclaim and has had other plays staged in London including at the Bush Theatre, National Theatre and Royal Court Theatre.
The Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards recognise outstanding achievements in Irish theatre.
Charlotte Murphy is an Irish actress best known for her role as Ann Gallagher in the BBC series Happy Valley (2014–2023).
Marietta Piekenbrock is a German art curator, dramaturge, author and a cultural manager. Her projects combine theatre, dance, performances and music with cultural history, architecture and everyday life. As an artistic manager of the Cultural Capital of Europe RUHR.2010 and Istanbul.2010, and for the Ruhrtriennale 2012-14, she invited international artists and curators to collaborate with the local cultural participants and players on developing new artistic projects in areas of radical social change. Her programmes of events and initiatives made a strong case for sustainable cultural practice. Her 2012 series of events "No Education" promoted a new discourse on the relationship between art, children and education.
Karl Shiels was an Irish actor of both stage and screen.
Odysseus, Verbrecher. Schauspiel einer Heimkehr is a play by the Austrian writer Christoph Ransmayr, first performed in 2010. It is based on an episode toward the end of Homer's Odyssey, where Odysseus returns to his kingdom and slaughters his wife's suitors, who are called reformers in the play. Odysseus, Verbrecher was commissioned for the Ruhr.2010 campaign as one of six new plays based on the Odyssey.