Blood.
Guts.
Virility.
Men in spandex and fur.
Severed limbs.
Water sports.
No...sorry, not BDSM night at the End-Up, but rather, Malfoy's latest theatrical undertaking..BEOWULF
As previously stated: 'Beowulf' co-created by Banana Bag and Bodice and Shotgun Players may be my favorite theatrical event of the year. And perhaps my bias is showing, but there are plenty of productions that my friends do that I don't love. (see yesterday's entry) Why? Well, let's run down the score shall we?
PRODUCTION:
First and foremost, how do you take a 1000+ year old tale that kids generally have dreaded reading for decades in grammar school and make it a) relevant and b)entertaining? You add the aesthetic sensibilities of New York's underground darlings, Banana Bag and Bodice (whose last shows, 'The Rise and Fall of the Rising Fallen' and 'The Sewers', blended their keen sense of dark and sometimes horrifying imagery with raucous musicale) to the East Bay's rebel yell, Shotgun Players, add a hearty cup of rock show and a hilarious Brechtian type panel of double cast narrators. More specifically you reinact the action this-is-where-the-CG-guys-go-to-town scenes with exaggerated pantomime, puppets/action figures and representative props-while the more drastic consequences on the human psyche: loss, parent-child relationships, self-pity or self-aggrandization, madness and general torture are brought to the forefront. It's a stimulating combination.
And there's a splash zone. That makes me laugh so hard.
CAST: All hail Jessica Jelliffe. The mezzo-soprano diva is at her best when playing the Machiavellian mother of Grendel; a Mommie Dearest of a beast, using her hair chopsticks to pick at the bucket of decapitated soldiers Grendel has brought home to feed her. All piercing sharp eye and quick quip. She is all at once fierce and regal, croons like a Mrs. Lovett with her Sweeney only to turn on her heel and vocalize her agonizing wrath at Beowulf's cavalier murder of her son. She constantly sucks blood from her fingers (a mix of chocolate syrup and Karo...shhhh....) while eyeing the audience, daring them to contest. You feel her pain at the loss of her son; bizarre and slow as he might be. She is at best, la belle dame sans merci-beautiful but dangerous. (no golden snakeskin forked tail suit tho')
Malfoy is...at risk of insulting him, DARLING as Hrothgar. He's written his songs well and his voice soars. Malfoy's king rocks out. He has a scene where he is constantly catered to by his minions (Anna Ishida and Shaye Troha) who move his wheelbarrow chair and hold up his microphone so he can serenade the audience on-what else-an accordian. Then as Beowulf actually appears, Hrothgar is compelled to get out of his chair (ala Theoden) and dance along to the swinging beat.
Jason Craig plays a hilarious bo-hunk of a Beowulf. He's your stereotypical jock, caring little for more than victory over what he labels evil. He arrives on stage to thunderous applause-shearing right through a paper barrier with his broadsword. He kills Grendel because the little guy is a 'dork' and dares to call Beowulf, 'stupid' (the best insult he can come up with) Later on, he finds a bit of remorse when Grendel's mother tells him Grendel was 'retarded', but blames it on his own dyslexia and justifies the murder with the eye-for-an-eye approach.
Christopher Kukenbacker as Grendel is a wonderful physical actor to watch for. His Grendel is not a monster on the outside but rather a sick individual psychologically. He loves his mother in the way that Sloth did in the 'Goonies' - but he jumps, spits and moves about the stage with the acrobatic acumen of a orangataun, the pure joy on his face when he kills is like a child who gets his brother to snort milk out his nose-a game. Nothing more. He also has the bod for this piece as 1/2 his performance is done bare-chested.
The rest of the ensemble is terrific. Cameron Galloway, as the last member of the panel of narrators is sprightly naive yet sensible. A mix of Mary Poppins and Professor Trelawney. She's the most present of the three; registering the same horror, fear, delight and humor that the audience feels. Her final turn is surprising and exciting but takes a while to get to. I figured it out about 10 minutes before it actually happened and the delay made me irritated. Anna Ishida is terrific; both as singer and movement artist. (ie. I'm jealous-she's totally great) Her voice is clear and well focused. Shaye Troha is so much prettier in real life that it seems a shame to cover her up in the tan body armor-still her voice is a bright counterpoint to Ishida's and her long gams don't hurt either. While it would have been easy for both women to play as simple backup girls-director Rod Hipskind was smarter than that and the two are more of a singing greek chorus-they're WORKING. Turning acrobatics, setting prop pieces etc.
MUSIC: It's a sexy band people. Playing some seriously good loud music. And yes, sometimes the lyrics are hard to make out, aside from the occasional "fucking" or "bitch" or other assorted cuss word-but you will want to groove out. Look, anything that will keep me awake at 5pm in the evening after a full lunch and the symphony is rollicking good. Malfoy joins his gypsy jazz beats with full out rock anthems and adds a touch of opera aria (Evanescence anyone?) for some damn fine music. My personal faves were Jelliffe's vengeance aria and Hrothgar's song/Needing Beowulf (oh THAT would be my note...a song list to accompany the program) Shotgun Company member, Dan Bruno has brought in some interesting percussion pieces to emphasize parts of the show: like a wine barrel timpani, anvil and the waterpipe. Brass/woodwinds by Chris Broderick and Jennifer Baker are great and Andre Nigoghossian is always en point; whether on guitar or amplified saw. 16 year old upright bassist, Simon Hanes is cute as a button and is having fun-you can tell. At Sunday's performance when Kukenbaker accidently flung his fake rock backwards hitting Hanes' bass, Hanes' reacted in character. Some fine musician balls on this youngster. All band members are dressed...rather ridiculously, but it only adds to the industrial feeling of the play rather than detracts. (spandex shorts? really costume person?)
STORY/BOOK:
The BBB/Shotgun version of this show truly asks the audience to question black and white. I mean pagan vs. Christianity aside. (which the show's creators do discuss) While you may be disgusted and even horrified by the vaguely Oedipean relationship Grendel and his mother share; no doubt you are on her side as she wreaks havoc on a Scandinavian village and then sets to fight Beowulf in a wrathful battle under a lake. Beowulf is ne'er the stalwart hero-he too has his flaws of being disillusioned and glory-hungry. The panel of narrators is a set of No-Evil Monkeys-clearly opinionated and yet apathetic in their retelling of the tale. You neither emphathize with nor hate them-they are there simply to tell the story. Ishida gets a fine turn as singer in her slightly general vengeance song about one soldier going off to revenge another. It's reminiscent of today's armed forces who give general and rehearsed reasons for going to war. The dramaturg also asks the audience to question what they believe to be the attributes of a hero. And whether or not, we as the reader are manipulated into seeing what we should want to see rather than what is so.
THEATRICAL PLUSES: God I love this set designer.
a) the light up floor panels-very Billy Jean and an appealing modern take on the follow-spot.
b) pendulum mics-used to incredible effect by the entire cast, but a special kudos to Jason Craig for choreographing an ever oscillating swing by all four during his death song.
c) an entire lit up wall of box fans topped by shards of broken glass. At once invoking: fortress, dragon and mountain winds. fan friggin' tastic. I only wish we had had something as cool when we did Miss Saigon.
d) fake hand + arm by the lovely talented Sig Hafstrom.
MINUSES?
There was another blogger's whose review I read yesterday who was critical of the amount of swearing that was in the show and I have to agree a bit. While Jelliffe uses the f-bomb as a satirical emphasis in her aria, the rest of the curse words seem to be throw away. And lose their significance and weight the more they are used. It's akin to using, "like" as filler. The season ticket holders next to me left at intermission. The woman claimed that she couldn't understand the band; my thought was that you didn't really need to. So many parts of the play were basically expounded upon via the narrator panel. The end dragged a bit, especially the part where Craig tells of his own death sequence. I think that song could easily be shared amongst Galloway, Ishida, Troha and Craig.
Overall, I heart this show and it's lusty, no holds barred take on a traditionally dismal classic. It's exciting, high energy and overall-well done. I was envious watching these people play together. It's bringing sexy back.
Go see this show, NOW. It runs til June 16th and you would be silly to miss it.
Shotgun Players
Ashby Stage
1901 Ashby Ave
Berkeley, CA
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