Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, a feminist rewriting of Homer's Odyssey, is to open Saturday as the highlight of an annual arts festival in Montenegro.

It’s the first time a Canadian work has been presented at the Purgatorio festival in the resort city of Tivat, and the first time The Penelopiad has been performed close to the original Mediterranean setting of the story.

The Penelopiad is a musical retelling of the story of Penelope and her 12 maids, who are murdered by her husband Odysseus when he returns from sacking Troy. First performed in 2007 as a co-production of Ottawa's National Arts Centre and the Royal Shakespeare Company in Britain, it has since been mounted across Canada.

Poster advertising Montenegro production of The Penelopiad.

April Productions artistic director Dragana Varagic of Toronto is directing it for the Purgatorio festival, in a collaboration with the Tivat Cultural Centre of Montenegro. Canadian and local artists are working on the co-production, with the all-female cast to come from Montenegro.

Serbian Bojana Vujin, who also translated Atwood's novel The Penelopiad, is translating the musical.

The festival, which in previous years concentrated on works by artists from Montenegro and the Mediterranean region, will also include a concert and an art exhibition featuring works by Canadians.

Varagic, a Toronto-based artist who began her stage career in Belgrade, recently presented a solo performance of The Vindication of Senyora Clito Mestres at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto. She has been active in introducing Canadian work and Canadian artists to her former homeland.