2's Got Your Ticket: A reimagining of Homer's Odyssey in "The Penelopiad"

CHICAGO (CBS) -- They were relatively marginal characters Homer's "The Odyssey," but now the faithful queen Penelope and her maidens are having their story told.

As the epic poem tells us, the Trojan War kept King Odysseus of Ithaca away from his wife, Queen Penelope, for 20 years. He has spent the first 10 of those years fighting the war, and another 10 on his voyage home – as he runs afoul of the god of the sea Poseidon after driving a stake into the eye of the god's cyclops son, encounters a series of obstacles from man-eating giants to a six-headed monster, and is taken captive by the nymph Calypso.

Meanwhile back in Ithaca, the long-suffering Penelope is harassed by 108 different suitors, who assume Odysseus has died.

In the Goodman Theatre's "The Penelopiad" – a production peppered with choreography and music – we see how the long-suffering queen, surrounded by her maidens, remained faithful until Odysseus returned at last. Still, a dark fate awaits Penelope, and that is what convinced author Margaret Atwood – famous for "The Handmaid's Tale," to explore the unheard voices in her 2005 book, which inspired the play.

"The Penelopiad" is Susan Booth's first directorial work at the Goodman since being named artistic director. She makes a bold statement.

Gerasole: "What is it about this particular piece that got your creative juices flowing?"

Booth: "I remember reading The Odyssey and thinking, 'Wow, what a great adventure story.' But there was this character who was completely on the margins, and I remember at the time reading it and thinking: 'Penelope, right? Twenty years she waits for this guy. We should be thinking more about her. Happily, Margaret Atwood wondered the same thing."

Booth noted that Atwood is "always interested in the full story – whose voice is not being heard, whose rights are not being respected."

Reviews of "The Penelopiad" have described the narrative as both "charming" and "alarming." The "alarming" part, Booth explained, is right there in Homer's original epic – in which Odysseus does not live up to his characterization as a resourceful and cunning hero.

"There is a detail in The Odyssey – when Odysseus finally comes home, he disguises himself because he wants to make sure that Penelope was loyal to him, but he also discovers that several of her maids flirted with her many, many suitors to fend them off," Booth explained. "And feeling that this somehow brought uncleanliness to his home, he instructed his son, Telemachus, to hang them – 12 young women. And that's the wildly alarming part of the story."

But charming element is that the bond between Penelope and the 13 maidens – who tend to reside at the margins of the story – form a community "that is funny, that is connected, that is loving" – even if it is to meet a horrific end.

"The Penelopiad" is playing at the Goodman through March 31.