Review: EDINBURGH 2024: PENTHESILEA, The Lyceum

Eline Arbo is one of the most exciting directors working at the moment, and Penthesilea is a powerful showcase of her work. In this sensual, rock-enthused reimagining of the Greek myth, Arbo spins a fascinating web of desire, passion, and sexuality.

Penthesilea is the queen of the Amazons, a race of warrior women who can only sleep with men they’ve defeated in battle. When she falls for the Greek warrior Achilles, an inevitable tragedy is set in motion. Arbo and the ITA Ensemble bring their version of the myth to the Edinburgh International Festival for its premiere, following her hit EIF production of The End of Eddy in 2022.  

Known for her stagecraft, here Arbo explores the overlap between sexual desire and violence, and their eventual similarities in the height of passion. Arbo’s Amazons are dressed in slick black androgynous outfits, and skulk around the stage with drum sets and rock guitars. Their longings and victories are expressed through plaintive ballads and thrashing rock songs, as the excess of emotion that spills out of speech and into music. Thijs van Vuure’s score flows like a dark sea between each scene, its tide rising and falling with the plot. The resulting combination is a brilliant piece of contemporary gig theatre. 

This production, from Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, is menacing and stylish from beginning to end. Stunning stage pictures are created from rolling fog, descending iron frames, and ascending spotlights. Despite references to Greece and Troy, the performance is suspended in time and place, with a distinctly modern sensibility. The industrial coldness of Pascal Leboucq’s set eventually gives way to the mess of blood and liquids as both the stage and the story start to get messy. 

But it isn’t all style over substance. Arbo’s reimagining of the myth presents an unravelling of gender and sexuality: both Penthesilea and Achilles come from single-sex tribes, and Arbo makes the desire and intimacy within each of these groups explicit. Rather than being just a companion of confidante, Prothoe is portrayed as explicitly in love with Penthesilea, further complicating the plot that follows. It’s a fascinating look at forbidden queerness in reverse: it’s the heterosexual pairing that goes against all norms and leads to violence and tragedy. All of this is explored subtly and stylishly, embedded into the piece’s very construction rather than added in as a present-day nod. Beyond that, the show is also unexpectedly funny – Arbo finds the humour in the irony of the situation, as well as in her title characters’ brash confidence. 

Ilke Paddenburg as Penthesilea is formidable, commanding the stage with a masculine swagger before quite literally falling apart. She is well-matched by Jesse Mensah as Achilles, and their twisty, surprising dynamic makes for engrossing theatre. 

Nonetheless, the ambiguous setting and broad strokes of mythology mean the production doesn’t pack quite as much as punch as some of Arbo’s other work. Everything is in abstraction, meaning Penthesilea lacks the specificity and real-world grounding of her 2022 The End of Eddy or current Almeida production of The Years. Given the ultimate simplicity of the story, the show could also do with being shorter –  a more condensed production would add intensity and focus. 

Arbo remains a creative at the top of her game, with a distinctive style and voice – I look forward to see where she takes her craft next, both with the ITA and beyond. 

Penthesilea ran at The Lyceum as part of the Edinburgh International Festival from 3-6 August 2024 - it will next be performed in Amsterdam in September. 

Cover Image Credit: Fabien Calis

To post a comment, you must register and login.