(Peter Crawley’s article appeared in the Irish Times, 7/15.)
Penelope Druid Lane Theatre, Galway
The four characters competing to woo Penelope in Enda Walsh’s new play may put up a fight, but they know their fates are sealed. If the immediate location didn’t spell doom – a drained swimming pool, fringed with junk, grime and, more recently, gore, in Sabine Dargent’s immediately startling set – then a shared dream prophesying the return of Penelope’s vengeful husband Odysseus and their own spectacular demise hastens the desperation.
But Druid’s grimly amusing production of Walsh’s frantic, poetic and surreal comedy makes their true realisation more horrifying and somehow more fatal: they are all condemned to be men.
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