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Dateline: 2nd February, 2007
The RSC, NAC and Bushell-Mingo Josette Bushell-Mingo is to direct the world premiere of the stage version of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, jointly produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and Canada's National Arts Centre, the first co-production between the RSC and a Canadian company. Featuring an all-female cast of actors from Canada and the RSC, the play will premiere at the Swan from 27th July to 18th August and will play at the National Arts Centre, Ottowa, from 17th September, after a visit to Northern Stage, Newcastle, from 5th to 7th September. As portrayed in Homer's The Odyssey, Penelope - wife of Odysseus - has become a symbol of wifely duty and devotion, enduring twenty years of waiting as her husband fights the Trojan War. As she fends off the attention of a hundred greedy suitors, travelling minstrels regale her with news of Odysseus' epic adventures, slaying monsters and grappling with amorous goddesses. When he finally returns, Odysseus kills Penelope's suitors and then, in an act that served as little more than a footnote in Homer's original story, inexplicably hangs Penelope's twelve beloved maids. In a new stage version by Margaret Atwood of her own novel, Penelope and her chorus of wronged maids tell their story, through song, dance and storytelling. Now based primarily in Sweden, Bushell-Mingo is Artistic Director of PUSH, an organisation set up for the promotion and development of Black British Theatre. Other directing credits include Two Step for PUSH 04 at the Almeida, Simply Heavenly (Young Vic), Mother Courage for Nottingham Playhouse, The Tango Room, The House of Bernarda Alba, Dreamhouse, Minotouramachia and Telling Tales for Aspects Theatre Company, The Threepenny Opera for Contact Theatre, Manchester, the Youth Theatre at The Lyric, Hammersmith, Two Gentlemen of Verona for Central Television and King Lear for Kaboodle Theatre Company (co-director). Directing credits in Europe include: Antigone for the Luntan Teater, Sweden; Edwina - A Cautionary Tale For Grown Ups for the Stadsteatern, Stockholm; Medea for the Kulturhuset, Stockholm; The House of Bernarda Alba for the Blo Theatre, Stockholm; Rosa Rosa for Raw Material in Amsterdam. Margaret Atwood is a novelist and poet whose many works include The Handmaid’s Tale, Alias Grace, Oryx and Crake and The Blind Assassin, for which she won the Man Booker Prize. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, she is also a Foreign Honorary Member for Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She lives in Toronto. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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