‘I am Penelope!’ The other side of myth
Jacqueline du Pré Building, St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford, 15-19 April 2024
'I am Penelope' - a film of the 'Penelope's Web' workshop in Oxford, by Rocio Chacon.
This workshop was designed to investigate the research question: How can music give a voice to silenced and elided female figures from ancient myth, as (solo) individuals or (choral) communities? We wanted to consider the relationship between Penelope and the enslaved girls in her palace, and to explore how music can reflect the issues around female status, solidarity, violence, betrayal, and independence of mind and body that Margaret Atwood explores in The Penelopiad.
Cheryl and Jeanne had composed a new piece specially for this workshop. They continued to use Atwood’s Underworld as a jumping-off point, with the work called ‘In Hades’, but this time they had written a choral piece to follow Penelope’s aria ‘Asphodel’. It was written to be performed by the girl choristers of Christ Church, Oxford: the Frideswide Voices. We returned to Cheney School, too, to meet with year 8 and 9 students in their after-school GCSE Latin club. We had two great sessions with them, discussing the situation of Penelope and the other characters of the Odyssey left behind in his palace on Ithaka, and in an incredibly short window of time they produced a beautiful array of personal responses to the myth: artwork, poetry, diary entries, and even a moving piece of animation.
Emily Pillinger visits Cheney School to introduce ‘Penelope’s Web’
The academic speakers at the workshop included, from Oxford, the composer and PhD student Alex Silverman, and Laura Swift who has been involved in a theatrical creative research project of her own: Fragments. Joining us from King’s was the comparatist and expert in classical reception, Justine McConnell, and from Durham came Lucy Jackson, who works on ancient performance culture and its re-staging. In our discussions we reflected on the competing priorities and hierarchies of women as they are represented in contemporary theatre, novels, and music. You can watch an interview with Justine, in which we talk in more detail about some of the ways in which Penelope’s story has provoked new retellings recently, and why she is such a valuable figure for reception.
We were also lucky to have a new singer perform as Penelope: Rozanna Madylus. Not only did she give a powerful and seductive new spin to the role, but she also provided a wonderful foil for the new young participants, the Frideswide Voices.
Rozanna rehearses with the choristers of Frideswide Voices
It was the children’s engagement with the story that really helped us to tackle our research question around the voicing of individual and choral communities from ancient myth. The performance slid from Penelope’s solipsistic reflection on her life-after-death in the fields of Asphodel, to a darker collective response by the enslaved girls who had worked in her palace. The sound of young teenage girls voicing figures of the same age in antiquity highlighted the horrors of the collateral damage that is so often elided or even celebrated in epic narrative.
At the same time, the responses we recorded to the event from the children reflected a sense of empowerment even in responding to a difficult narrative. The students from Cheney School emphasised the value of having to react actively – creatively and originally – to the myth:
‘There are lots of different layers to Greek myths and ways to approach them.’
It was striking how many of the students identified the importance of perspective when telling a story – a visual metaphor that resonates with our interest in voice – and that while this was difficult, it was an exercise in empathy:
‘… listening to unknown / less told stories can help you get a deeper understanding of the tale and can help you feel empathy for all characters.’
‘Perspectives from other characters in stories (even Ancient) can be / are relatable.’ ‘It was hard, but fun. Helped with empathy - putting yourself in others’ perspectives’
‘I learnt that by adapting something old you can bring to light current issues.’
‘I learnt that there is [sic] so many different sides to one story, and that it's important to consider each and every one of them.’
By contrast, the choristers of Frideswide Voices were struck by the difference between rehearsing for ‘In Hades’ compared with their regular rehearsals for choral evensong at Christ Church. They were astonished by how long it took to rehearse a very short extract when they had to include movement and choreography, but celebrated the way in which this movement and character-building had to become part of their work:
‘You need different skills. You need to tell a story.’
For them it became emotional in a different way.
‘The music part was only a small amount of the whole performance.’
‘You can express more emotions, rather than having to stick with the composer's intentions.’
‘You are more free to do things as a character than yourself. It's more fun, more tiring moving about and acting. I enjoy (being) free to express emotions more. I love it!’
It was striking how the students of Cheney School and those of Frideswide Voices responded to the material in different ways, although they were of a broadly similar age. We therefore decided to record a separate conversation between the director of Frideswide Voices, Helen Smee, and the director of Cheney School’s classics teaching, Lorna Robinson, whose insights will be coming in the form of a podcast to be released soon.
For now, we’ll end with one of the comments by a student from Cheney School.
‘You change the perspective, you change the story.’
This week-long workshop was the first of the ‘Penelope’s Web’ events to be funded by the UKRI AHRC Research Networking Grant. Both the University of Oxford (TORCH and the APGRD) and King’s College London have already given financial support to the project over the past few years, but this grant has facilitated a more extensive collaboration between the two universities.