Top subscription boxes – right to your door, Extended holiday return window till Jan 31, 2021, Visit Amazon's Maria Dahvana Headley Page, © 1996-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition. ―Steve Thomas, The Fantasy Hive. While crafting her contemporary adaptation of Beowulf, Headley unearthed significant shifts lost over centuries of translation. This commissioned collaboration with New York's Banana Bag & Bodice transformed the Old English epic poem into a brawny and raucous musical with flamboyant theatricality, wrestling matches, go-go dancing warriors, and a jargon-spouting academic panel that turned into monsters. A new, feminist translation of Beowulf by the author of the much-buzzed-about novel The Mere Wife"Brash and belligerent, lunatic and envigorating, with passages of sublime poetry punctuated by obscenities and social-media shorthand." Kaibrina Sky Buck. No, I don't care if you've read Beowulf (the original) before . … Now we have the full version, and it is electrifying . Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. Craig makes for an ambivalent hero. . in the place of the sturdy Saxon exhortation 'Hwaet'--you know this isn't your grandpappy's version of Beowulf . Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage continues through June 22 at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. Where The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. "[The Mere Wife] includes some tantalizing snippets of Beowulf as translated by Headley. . ―Jason Sheehan, NPR Books"Bold . So how do you approach Beowulf, a monumental epic, with a cast of seven? Rasputin: healer or hedonist or both? If it founders a bit toward the end, though, it's a provocative delight for the better part of two hours. When asked by Grendel’s mother why he murdered her son, the warrior can’t come up with a great answer. She combines a modern poetry style with some of the hallmarks of Old English poetry, and the words practically sing off the page . Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage, Shotgun Players. At present they are looking for space to rehearse in Manhattan. The show, presented by the Shotgun Players and Banana Bag & Bodice, is not content merely to retell the “Beowulf” story in skewed musical fashion. $17-$26. It isn't quite a triumph, but it comes pretty close. Just check out the composition of Malloy’s orchestra: Malloy himself is on piano and accordion (he also plays King Hrothgar); Jen Baker is on trombone; Chris Broderick is on bass clarinet and clarinet; Dan Bruno goes to town on percussion; Andy Strain slides the trombone; and Andre Nigoghossian plays guitar and – get this – the saw. A warrior seeks to avenge her murdered son. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in, + $12.33 Shipping & Import Fees Deposit to France. Tickets are $17-$25. We loved it. Malloy’s engaging score is, like the show itself, both funny and serious. So, revenge I guess.” Beowulf, it seems, is not such a thoughtful guy. Craig is terrific as the brooding, humble-vain Beowulf, bellowing his warrior boast-raps or contemplating action-hero toys. Awards include: San Francisco TBA Award Lighting Design Awards: We Player’s “Beowulf”, Shotgun Players "Eurydice", Theater of Yugen's "This Lingering Life", SF Playhouse “The Obligation”. The original aim of composer Dave Malloy was to create an opera, but what he and writer Jason Craig ended up with is something more interesting: a hurdy-gurdy rock musical that lives just on the other side of a Brecht-Weill beer hall. Galloway, who is just priceless in her timid academic suit and neckwear (the smart, funny, just-right costumes are by Kaibrina Buck), doesn’t break out until toward the end, during the last chapter of Beowulf’s life (when he dies battling a dragon) when she sings part of the tale in the original Olde English. SF’s historic movie theaters team up for drive-in... Closed 116-year-old SF hotel puts on live shows in... Opinion: Why it's OK to only skim articles on the... 'He's in this honeymoon period': UCSF doctor warns what could be ahead for Trump, Trump returns to White House, downplaying virus that hospitalized him and turned West Wing into 'ghost town', Parents Face Murder Charge in Death of Girl With Severe Lice, California pastor who was at Rose Garden event has COVID-19, Newsom warns second COVID-19 wave in other countries could hit California, 19-year-old UC Berkeley student last seen at SF's Crissy Field reported missing. Headley's language and pacing keep perfect track with the events she describes . The world-premiere work marks a first collaboration between the Shotgun Players and the Banana Bag & Bodice, a group familiar to San Francisco Fringe Festival audiences. There are a few songs here and there that could be tightened, but the brisk pace and the constantly changing palate (played out on a set designed by Banana Bag & Bodice and lit by Miranda Hardy) make those two hours as full as they could be. Robert Hurwitt came to the San Francisco Chronicle as theater critic in 2000  after serving in the same position for the San Francisco Examiner for the previous decade. The first thing I need to tell you is that you have to read it now. Download War Robots 6v6 PvP game and get an AWESOME Starter Pack! Call 510-841-6500 or visit www.shotgunplayers.org for information. The familiar elements of the epic poem are seen with a novelist’s eye toward gender, genre, and history―Beowulf has always been a tale of entitlement and encroachment, powerful men seeking to become more powerful, and one woman seeking justice for her child, but this version brings new context to an old story.