Penelope – Underbelly Belly Button
Grace McLean's hands deserve a review of their own.
In Penelope, they become almost another piece of stage machinery. A picture on a bedside table is conjured between her fingers, suddenly forming something resembling a tiny Grecian image. Later, as Penelope describes working at her loom, McLean's hands weave invisible landscapes, seascapes and portraits in the air before methodically undoing them again.
It is mesmerising physical storytelling.
Penelope has promised that she will marry one of her suitors when her weaving is finished. Her solution is beautifully simple: create by day, unpick by night, and keep waiting for Odysseus.
And she has been waiting a very long time.
There is initially something almost Liza Minnelli-like about McLean's performance, ...