“Penelope”. Music, lyrics and arrangements by Alex Bechtel. Book by Alex Bechtel, Grace McLean, Eva Steinmetz. Directed by Courtney O’Connor. Music Direction by Dan Rodriguez. Presented by The Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 140 Clarendon Street, Boston, through March 1.
By Michele Markarian
Odysseus is a popular figure these days. In 2018, he appeared in Madeline Miller’s novel “Circe” as a virile and manipulative broken warrior. There was Kate Hamill’s “Odyssey” that premiered at A.R.T. last year. There’s an upcoming film version, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Matt Damon, scheduled for release this July. “Penelope”, written by Alex Bechtel, is a one-woman cabaret depicting a waiting, sometimes patiently, sometimes not, wife of Odysseus, whose loyalty and love is played adoringly by Aimee Doherty.
Gone for twenty years – ten to fight the Trojan War and ten to take his time sailing home – Odysseus is not what one would call a loyal spouse. Penelope, on the other hand, is. There’s a constant presence of suitors around the palace vying for her hand, as the winner will be the one to rule the kingdom of Ithaca (even though Penelope has been doing it well on her own). Penelope has promised to choose a suitor once she has finished a tapestry she is weaving, one which she secretly unravels each night. For despite the twenty years’ absence, Penelope still has hope, although she sometimes tries to kill time and discouragement with drink, as in the humorous “Drunk Iliad”. Every day, she is drawn to the sea, waiting.
Doherty is the consummate actress, with a remarkable range. Her Penelope wears the mien of an ingenue, with love and longing captured in every expression. Always at ease, Doherty quips, ”If that’s Odysseus, you’d better tell him to get his ass home” when an unexpected cell phone goes off in the audience. She is joined onstage by musicians Dan Rodriguez, Marissa Licata, Ethan Wood, Kett Lee, and Josh Goldman, all dressed in white, who occasionally serve as the Chorus to what is basically a cabaret. There’s a desperation to the pleading “Athena’s Song”, where the goddess deigns to give Penelope a message to “have faith, take heart” with very little else attached, other than the message that her son, Telemachus, is safe. In the beautiful “Pilgrim’s Song”, Penelope reflects quietly on love – “Love, said the pilgrim, feels like a gift to me”. Although Doherty does her best, the score, for the most part, is repetitive and somewhat uninspiring.
Janie E. Howland’s set conjures up the beauty of the Greek islands, in Santorini blue and white. I don’t think I’m giving away the ending when I tell you that Odysseus eventually makes it home, a scene that Doherty manages to play tenderly, even without a live scene partner. Somehow, it works. As she lies next to the invisible, sleeping Odysseus, his lack of physical presence hangs in the air, like a question mark. Where has he been? What has he experienced? All Penelope has is her love and her faith, which apparently is enough.
For more information and tickets, go to: https://www.lyricstage.com/production/penelope/
