Stick to the B.E.A.T. / Get ready to ignite

Today I had the privilege to go and see a collaboration between the NAC and the Royal Shakespeare Company of England. This collaboration is Margaret Atwood's new play (based off the book) The Penelopiad. It's is a play that tells Penelope's side of the story of The Odyssey. Penelope tells the story of her marriage to Odysseus, and how she fell in love with him and then recounts the story the Odyssey skims over: the story of Penelope's long years of wait in Ithica with her twelve handmaids. Atwood takes a character with little depth in the Odyssey and breathes life into her, creating a new intelligent, funny, scared, hopeful woman where there was no detail before.

As I said, this was put on by the RSC and the NAC together. The cast is mostly from the RSC, with a few from Canada. They worked on the play even as Atwood was finishing it and it's the first production. It is also a women-only cast. All characters were played by the twelve handmaids using costume changes, sometimes changes on stage. The lighting was great, the actors were amazing and though certain uptight CBC critics didn't like parts of it (if you listen to CBC1, you know who I'm talking about) I have one thing to say about it:

It was fucking AMAZING.

Easily my favourite stage show I've ever seen. I love love love love love love loved it. Sure Atwood has a tendancy to add pretentiousness in here and there, but it really didn't affect the production as a whole. It really was a breathtaking piece.

Walking back from the NAC, everyone had great things to say about the show and how good it was. Some are of the anti-Atwood mind frame, but they still really liked it. I was dicussing the play with a friend and the two drama teachers Ms K and Ms Szeles, aka, Hellish-teacher-I-had-last-year. I was saying how much I LOVED it and my friend teasingly said "yes, but you are Evey and you're a feminist."

Ms Szeles: Oh Evey, is that so? You're something of a feminist?

Me: Well, Ms Szeles, do you support equal rights for women and men?

Ms Szles: Yes...

Me: Then you're a feminist too.

Thank you Tomato Nation for that response.

So seriously guys, go see it.