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FAST-FORWARD CALGARY
by Lori Mongomery
February 21, 2002
Epic poetry a perfect fit for surreal puppet show
The Old Trout Puppet Workshop revives Beowulf
PREVIEW
BEOWULF
Old Trout Puppet Workshop
February 26 to March 16
Big Secret Theatre (CPA)
There’s a certain inevitability to the idea of The Old Trout Puppet Workshop taking on Beowulf . Always drawn to larger-than-life myths and legends, the collaborators responsible for The Ice King and The Unlikely Birth of Istvan may have been working up to the epic poem all this time.
"It is a perfect fit for puppets, with monsters, kings, and dark, evil goings-on," says the Old Trouts' Judd Palmer.
He points out that the 1,000-year-old poem has had its ups and downs in the popular consciousness, and was resurrected during the First World War, when British academics decided that the British soldiers needed a national poem to rival the Germans’ rich store of legends. Recently, Seamus Heaney’s translation of the poem actually made the New York Times best-seller list. World events have given the production even more relevance, Palmer says.
"This was a late realization in the process, but we are entering into a new war, and the mythology of it is found there as well – pointing fingers, and figuring out who’s on God’s side and who’s not on God’s side," he explains. "It turned into this really powerful piece of work, because we’re still behaving the same way, a thousand years later. We still have the same fundamental psychological structures, the same capacity for propagandizing our own side."
The Trouts are particulary inspired by the portion of the poem in which the Danish king Hrothgar is under attack by the monster Grendel, and Beowulf arrives to kill the monster and save the kingdom. Still, the show is not a recital of the poem or a direct representation of its action.
"It’s traditional for the Old Trouts – surreal and fantastical and is maybe more of a thematic representation than a literal one," says Palmer. "In other words, we’re taking events and pieces of striking poetry out of the original poem and stringing them all together into this great sort of circular metaphysical muck that we’re hurling at the audience."
Another Old Trout, Steve Pearce, adds that the group has spent time sorting through Beowulf for the parts of the poem that have the most resonance today.
"So, in many ways, the poem has been filtered through us, taking it out of the realm of the actual words of the poem and into its theme and psychology," says Pearce. "That gives us the chance to sort of play with what goes on inside our own heads as we read Beowulf today."
To describe the show, Pearce draws on everything from Viking legend to Jorge Luis Borges to theories of cognitive development, but if the Trouts' previous shows are any guide, there will be nothing academic about the final product, a mélange of monsters and dragons and flying Valkyries.
Original Article
FAST-FORWARD CALGARY
by Lori Montgomery
March 7, 2002
REVIEW
BEOWULF
Old Trout Puppet Workshop
Runs until Saturday, March 16
Big Secret Theatre (PAC)
There must be an awful lot of profundity in the world that I’m missing because I’m distracted by all the words. As a person who lives by language it pains me to say it, but that’s the conclusion I’m forced to draw after seeing The Old Trout Puppet Workshop’s wordless interpretation of Beowulf, presented by One Yellow Rabbit. For the second time (the first was their remarkable The Unlikely Birth of Istvan), they have taken a seemingly simple tale and imbued it with astonishing levels of meaning through the use of their innovative puppets.
It doesn’t get much simpler than this snippet of the original Beowulf: the king Hrothgar takes over the reins of power and builds a huge mead-hall for his court. Grendel, the neighbourhood monster, takes offence at all the frivolity and attacks the court, killing Hrothgar’s knights and threatening his kingdom. Eventually, the warrior Beowulf arrives on the scene, heroically defeats Grendel, and takes over the crown. Simple. Plenty of fantastic creatures and fights to the death, if you like that sort of thing – and you could easily stop there and be perfectly satisfied with your night at the theatre.
Or you could take note of the anguished inner-face of the outwardly menacing Grendel, brilliantly realized in the design of the creature. You could consider the cyclical nature of the rise and fall of the succession of kings. Or you could marvel at the technical virtuousity that allows a puppet to age before your eyes.
All of this and much, much more is possible in part because this adaptation of the epic poem features only a few choice words from the poem itself. Aside from that brief prelude, puppeteers Bobby Hall, Steve Kenderes, Judd Palmer, Steve Pearce and Mike Rinaldi use movement, light and design, as well as music mixed by Peter Moller, to convey an unlimited spectrum of ideas and emotion.
Someday very soon, there will be a style of puppetry that will come to be known as "Old Trout-like" – it’s just too good not to be imitated.
Original Article
