The first production photos are out for The Penelopiad at York Theatre Royal, where Amelia Bullmore leads Margaret Atwood's take on the Odyssey into its press night this evening.
York Theatre Royal has released the first production photos for The Penelopiad on the day of its press night. Taken by Pamela Raith, they show Amelia Bullmore as Penelope among the masked chorus of Maids, with Charlie Russell as Odysseus, Pena Iiyambo as Helen and Syakira Moeladi as Telemachus.
Previews started on 10 October. The press performance is tonight, Wednesday 14 October, at 7pm. The run is short and ends on 31 October 2026.
Atwood wrote the stage version herself, from her 2005 novella. It turns Homer's The Odyssey around: Penelope and her maids tell the story, with songs and movement running through it. The play premiered at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in July 2007, a co-production between the Royal Shakespeare Company and Canada's National Arts Centre. This is its first major UK revival since then.
On screen, Bullmore is best known for Scott & Bailey and Coronation Street, and more recently Riot Women. Russell is one of the co-founders of Mischief, the company behind The Play That Goes Wrong. The rest of the company are Nell Baker (Laertes), Danielle Bird (Eurycleia), Faye Campbell (Melantho), Kat Johns-Burke (Antinous) and Olivia Burton-Laws, making her professional debut as Naiad Mother.
York Theatre Royal's creative director Juliet Forster directs, with an all-female creative team: design by Sara Perks, lighting by Alexandra Stafford, music, musical direction and sound by Kate Marlais, movement by Michelle Edwards and casting by Ellie Collyer-Bristow CDG. The first pictures from the rehearsal room came out at the end of September, and we ran them here.
Three access performances are scheduled: a British Sign Language interpreted show on 16 October at 7.30pm, an audio-described matinee on 22 October at 2pm with a touch tour at 1pm, and a captioned performance on 24 October at 2.30pm.
