Played by Chloë Ariane Whitehorn, Penelope is a formidable and vulnerable queen. In her opening scene, I wondered if Whitehorn would be able to play Penelope as deeply as the character deserves, but I needn’t have worried. Whitehorn’s Penelope is a gracious, stoic, brokenhearted woman, someone who’s holding it all together but is tired of waiting on a man who may now be nothing more than a ghost.

Whitehorn draws the audience into the life of the wife left behind and she manages to give some history to the story without seeming obvious about it. Her love for both her husband and son is palpable and Whitehorn is believable as the proud and disappointed queen of Ithaca.