York Theatre Royal announces major UK revival of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad

York Theatre Royal announces a major UK revival of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad. Adapted from her critically acclaimed novella of the same name, this exuberant feminist retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey gives voice to the silenced Penelope and her chorus of maids.

Directed by York Theatre Royal’s Creative Director Juliet Forster, the production will open on 14 October, with previews from 10 October, and runs until 24 October 2026 at York Theatre Royal.

The Penelopiad premiered at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon, in July 2007 in a co-production between the Royal Shakespeare Company and Canada’s National Arts Centre. This marks the first major UK revival of the show since that production.

Juliet Forster said today, “Margaret Atwood is such a phenomenal writer – she’s clever, witty, subversive and her insights into human dynamics are acutely well observed. The Penelopiad is a funny, moving, fast paced, visual feast, a classical tale told through a contemporary lens. The epic, heroic story of The Odyssey will never look the same again! I am thrilled we will be staging it here at York Theatre Royal, and I can’t wait to get started on the show.”

THE ODYSSEY: HER STORY 

Margaret Atwood, author of the modern feminist classic The Handmaid’s Tale, revisits Homer’s The Odyssey in a powerful, irreverent and darkly humorous retelling that unpicks one of the oldest of myths.

Immortalised as the devoted and faithful wife to the glorious Odysseus, Penelope waits 20 years for her husband to return from the Trojan War, silently weaving and unpicking and weaving again. Now it’s time to hear the story of those left behind…

Reimagining this ancient tale, Atwood gives voice to the silenced Penelope and her chorus of maids. Wandering the underworld Penelope spins a different kind of thread: her side of the story – a tale of injustice, betrayal and revenge.

Adapted for the stage by Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood and interwoven with songs, York Theatre Royal’s production will be directed by Juliet Forster (Little Women, Around The World In 80 Days-ish!) This exuberant and witty retelling questions the version of events we think we know and exposes the truth behind the myth… 

Margaret Atwood is an internationally acclaimed writer, poet and essayist whose work has been published in more than forty-five countries. Her novels include The Handmaid’s Tale (recipient of Arthur C. Clarke Award – and subsequently adapted into the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning TV series), The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin (winner of the Booker prize), Cat’s Eye, The Edible Woman, Surfacing, Life Before Man, Bodily Harm, The Testaments (winner of the Booker prize), and The MaddAddam Trilogy. Her poetry collections include Double Persephone, The Circle Game, Power Politics, Morning in the Burned House, and The Door. Her essay collections include Negotiating with the Dead and Burning Questions. Atwood’s novella The Penelopiad was published in 2005 and later adapted in 2007 for the stage, marking her first theatrical work.

Creative Director of York Theatre Royal Juliet Forster directs. At York Theatre Royal she has directed Sleeping Beauty, His Last Report, Little Women, Around the World in 80 Days-ish!, Aladdin, Sovereign, The Coppergate Woman, Jack and The Beanstalk, All New Adventures of Peter Pan, Cinderella, The Travelling Pantomime, A View from the Bridge, Everything is Possible: The York Suffragettes, The Machine Stops, The Crucible, Twelfth Night, Betrayal, See How They Run, In Fog and Falling Snow, Two Planks and a Passion, A Number, Angels & Insects, Blue/Orange, Morgana le Fey, Escaping Alice, Oleanna, Rupert Brooke, Beyond Measure, The Journey, The Elves and the Shoemakers, The Book of Dragons, Whatever Next and Rabbit and Hedgehog. Other theatre include Romeo & Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre, Blenheim), Sense and Sensibility (Theatre by the Lake), The Tempest (Winchester Theatre Royal), The Devil at Coventry, View, Alien Invasion, Five Princes and a Wedding (Belgrade Theatre), The Legend of Perseus, The Night Before Christmas, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (Big Wooden Horse), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and A Tale of Two Cities (Wolverhampton Grand Theatre).

Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad plays at York Theatre Royal 10 – 24 Oct 2026. Tickets are available here.