Interview: Alex Bechtel - Penelope (Edinburgh Fringe Festival)

PENELOPE waited twenty years for Odysseus to return from the Trojan War. Now she's ready to share her side of the story, but she's going to need a drink first. Starring Broadway's Grace McLean, this contemporary chamber musical brings one of history's greatest epics to life through a Richard Rodgers Award-winning folk-pop score. Sharp, funny, and unexpectedly moving, this is Penelope's Odyssey. Written by Alex Bechtel.

Could you tell us a bit more about yourself and the show?

I'm a composer/lyricist/writer/performer originally from Philadelphia and now living in New York City. My primary mission as an artist is the creation of new works of musical theatre that expand and challenge our traditional understanding of the art form. I started writing Penelope in 2020. I began the lockdown period of the Covid pandemic in a long-distance relationship, and I was forced to quarantine in separate cities from my partner. During that time, I found myself writing songs and instrumental pieces from the point of view of Penelope, Odysseus' wife in the Odyssey. As the years went on, and theaters reopened, I partnered with my longtime friend and collaborator Eva Steinmetz, and the brilliant performer/creator Grace
McLean to expand Penelope into a musical for one actor and a chamber ensemble of musicians.

You won a Richard Rodgers Award for this amazing folk-pop score. How would you describe the style of the music?
Someone once described the Penelope score as "Joni Mitchell meets Philip Glass", which both makes me chuckle and I think is pretty accurate. Something that really excites me about Penelope is that there are almost as many instrumental songs in the show as there are songs with lyrics and singing. The audience gets to experience a visible onstage band of real live humans playing instrumental music, and we ask that they experience that as dramatic action. Sometimes all
that's happening is a cellist playing a cello solo; which is thrilling to me, especially in the age of AI music and shows performed to pre-recorded tracks. I wear my musical influences on my sleeve, especially on the songs with lyrics/singing: from Radiohead to Rodgers and Hammerstein, Joni Mitchell to Tori Amos, Fiona Apple to Ben Folds.
But also, Penelope is the most personal and stylistically honest score I've ever written for theatre, so in a way it's the most me music I've ever written.

The show is described as sharp, funny, and unexpectedly moving. How do you balance the comedy with the emotional moments?
I feel like the balance really is the show. I come from a background that is a very odd mix of classic musical theatre and experimental devised theatre - so my instinct is always to create an expectation and then to subvert it in ways that makes an audience feel both challenged and taken care of. So we'll take you on a ride where you're laughing a lot, or very entertained, and then slip in a line or moment where the bottom drops out and you have to sit with a hard truth or
emotion, and vice versa. I adore the moments in the show where Grace, and the audience, are in tears, and then all of a sudden a laugh bubbles up through the surface of that water of sad. What's more human
than that?

You are bringing Penelope all the way from the USA to Scotland! How does it feel to share this American production with an international audience?

Oh, I'm beside myself with excitement. I began writing these songs in a tiny apartment in South Philadelphia, quarantined from those I love and swimming in fear that we may never be able to make and show live theatre again. The fact that, six years later, the show not only has a life but is crossing an ocean to meet audiences from all over the world ... it feels like the most ardent of dreams has come true.

How did you first get involved with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe?
This is my first Fringe! Penelope is being produced by the incredible Rigor + Ruckus, who approached us about bringing the show to Edinburgh earlier this year. Eva, Grace and I had talked about Fringe as a lofty ambition, and "someday" dream for Penelope. So, the fact that Rigor + Ruckus and Underbelly are making that happen for us is another dream
come true.

What are you most looking forward to about performing at the Edinburgh Fringe this August?

It's the Olympics of live performance! I think I'm most excited about being one star in such a rich constellation of artists working overtime to put up their work and have it be in conversation with hundreds of others. On a personal note, I'll also mention that there are numerous shows being brought to Fringe this August that have their roots in the Philadelphia arts scene - Lightning Rod Special's "Lions", Lee Minora's "Baby Everything", Sohrab Haghverdi's "Foreigner", among others. I love the fact that, whether they know it or not, the Edinburgh Fringe audiences are getting a glimpse into the very special artistic landscape of Philadelphia.

If you could describe Penelope in just three words, what would they be?

Intimate, Heartfelt, Fierce