From The Guardian:
Novelist Margaret Atwood and Phyllida Lloyd first met in 2002, at the premiere of the opera of Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, directed by Lloyd. Now they have collaborated on a staged reading of Atwood’s latest book, The Penelopiad, a reinterpretation of the Odyssey told by Odysseus’s wife Penelope and her 12 maids (who were hanged by Odysseus on his return) from the underworld where they have languished for centuries. Atwood is to play the part of Penelope.
Margaret Atwood Phyllida and I first talked about staging The Penelopiad last fall, when she was in Toronto directing The Handmaid’s Tale, the opera. I had just finished writing The Penelopiad and Phyllida said she’d like to read it. We agreed it had a theatrical dimension, and when I was next in England we got together to talk it over. Various schemes were suggested, and finally we decided to do this staged reading. It’s not a fully fledged performance and it’s been done on a shoestring. And I’m playing the part of Penelope because I’m cheap – in fact, I’m free.
More here.