I have not seen many theater performances in my lifetime, but I thought Penelope was one of the best I have ever seen. Between the themes, acting, and storyline, I thought it was a great production. The language of the story was so beautifully written that listening to the actors speak was an art in itself. What caught my attention in the beginning was the humor of the four suitors. The play was funny throughout the entire performance, which I think was important because although many deep themes were dealt with, if no humor was present I think it would have lost many viewers. Some themes I noticed were love, friendship, hope, freedom, competition between males, how to confront death, courage, and trust. I liked how the playwright included many symbols on the stage that just brought the story together. For example, when Quinn is cooking the sausage on the barbeque and the four suitors get on the topic of if it were the last sausage, I thought of it representing the last suitor left for Penelope. When the suitors make their speeches to Penelope, I was able to tell they weren’t legitimately in love with her, but she represented freedom to them, and they wanted that most of all. The long speeches that were said by the suitors did not distract me or take me away from the play, but pulled me into the deep meanings behind their words. The use of the microphone made their voices seem to come from elsewhere. To me, it felt like the words were coming from my conscious and I was the one being philosophical. I think that is a very important aspect of this play. It was extremely engaging, which I think is important for any play. But this play was different because it dealt with deeper life themes than most other plays really get to. Penelope was a modern take on The Odyssey, but not modern enough where we could relate to it completely. How absurd the play was with them being in a swimming pool with a ladder where they can escape, and Quinn’s rapid costume changes made us not get so absorbed into their story which I feel was important. Not getting absorbed in the plot because it was so strange, made us get involved in the feelings and deep themes instead. The performance messed with our emotions making us laugh and become really deep back and forth often. The sudden juxtaposition of feelings between Quinn’s costume change to his sudden death startled the audience and brought things to a quick, powerful ending. The ending with the flame on the barbeque left my heart pounding and me feeling vulnerable and left to leave the theater thinking about everything that I just experienced. If that is not a successful play, I don’t know what is.
I thought Rodney’s Shakespeare workshop was a great experience. His quirky personality kept the class’ attention and I think his accent also helped with that too! =) I really liked the exercises he did when he would bring two actors to the center and tell them to read the script with whatever situation he told them in their mind. They would have to read the words angrily, flirtatiously, or with sadness. By doing this, we were better able to understand the meaning behind Shakespeare’s words. I found it very interesting how different each of the editions of his works were from one another. I didn’t realize how much the English editors had changed Shakespeare’s writing, and some of their changes drastically affected his intended meaning. When Rodney explained how Shakespeare included things for the benefit of a play and not as literature, I understood how these changes were wrong in every way. His interactive exercises with the class made Shakespeare a lot more interesting from a dramatic perspective instead of the literary perspective that I have been exposed to my whole life. Rodney made Shakespeare seem very second-nature. When he gave out the opening lines to different plays, we instinctively projected the first word of our sentence to grab the attention of the audience the way the actors did at the Globe Theatre. I liked knowing that we naturally were doing things the same way Shakespearean actors did them. It made me feel more connected to Shakespeare’s works, where before they intimidated me and I did not always understand them. Rodney helped with that a lot and I really enjoyed the time the class had with him.
-Nicole Lennon