Bringing Beowulf back to life

THIS retelling of Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon narrative poem, is a vehicle for a father to communicate with his nine-year-old son.

Beowulf: The Blockbuster is by Pat Moylan Productions. The company has toured the hit plays, Alone it Stands and Stones in His Pockets, so audiences can expect a show with popular appeal. While it centres around an archaic text about a tragic hero and a dragon — it is studied in university — this one-man show, performed by Bryan Burroughs, is accessible and has been garlanded with rave reviews.At last year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, it was the only production out of 3,000 shows to receive six five-star reviews.

With no props and the actor playing 20 roles, ‘Beowulf: The Blockbuster’ is intense. The ‘blockbuster’ in the title is how the young boy relates to his father. Both father and son share a love of popular films, such as Stars Wars and Superman. Beowulf: The Blockbuster is interspersed with these contemporary references. The father must tell his boy something important. The drama stems from that