United we stand. Divided we stand – in an empty swimming pool, waiting to be butchered by a legend.
That’s the scenario of Enda Walsh’s play Penelope. Four men have unsuccessfully vied for the affections of Penelope and soon her long absent husband, Odysseus, will return. There will be consequences.
Walsh’s play is rich and playful. It sets competition against co-operation. Are we really capable of the latter?
Director Kate Gaul’s production is superb. The cast is top class, and they bring to life Walsh’s snappy word play.
Thomas Campbell as Burns. Photo by Kathy Luu
There are some extraordinarily powerful speeches, which provide an effective foil to the lighter raillery. The monologues by Nicholas Hope and Thomas Campbell alone will get me back a second time.
Gaul and designer Tom Bannerman have magically transformed the space. We are in the pool. Or is it the gladiator’s amphitheatre?
But they’re a sorry lot of gladiators. Perhaps collaboration is their only hope.
Dramatists have a vested interest in seeing hostility at the heart of human nature. It’s their ideology. With out this belief it’s hard to spin stories.
But is it true? News reports provide easy confirming evidence. But journalists are the close cousins of dramatists, and share their needs.
This play puts it out there; competition or co-operation?
It’s a fascinating question. With no answer. Except, of course, the one we make with our own lives.
Veronica Kaye
Penelope
TAP Gallery til Oct 6th
Theatre Red 
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