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Breathless Beowulf brings storytelling theatre to Dublin

category international | arts and media | news report author Sunday October 21, 2007 22:33author by The Oh-Aissieux - Narrative Arts Clubauthor email narrativearts at gmail dot comauthor address Cill Mhaighneannauthor phone 086 060 3818

The seanchaí never played the watering-can this way!

Two Danish performers last night gave an adventurous audience at the Players Theatre its first dazzling glimpse of “storytelling theatre” with a breath-taking performance of their free adaptation of the Old English saga, Beowulf.
Beowulf at DU Players - Jesper and Troels
Beowulf at DU Players - Jesper and Troels

Performing non-stop for 70 minutes to a rapt audience of a hundred people, Jesper la Cour Andersen and Troels Kirk Ejsing used simple narration, intimate eye contact, audience interaction, broad physical mime and innovative music to fire the synapses of their listeners’ imagination, with only occasional departures into enactment of brief scenes from the saga.

At the end of the performance, students and lecturers familiar with the epic poem were left in no doubt: This is Beowulf, but not as we know it. Similarly, Irish listeners were left in little doubt: The seanchaí never played the watering-can with such skill and dexterity.

Jesper and Troels are members of The Telling Theatre, a touring theatre company based in Copenhagen that was founded in 1996 to explore the meeting point between theatre and its origins in storytelling:
http://www.detfortaellendeteater.dk/engindex.asp

Storytelling theatre is also well established in the UK, where Ben Haggarty frequently performs narrative adaptations of great epics, including a two-and-a-half hour version of Frankenstein:
http://www.crickcrackclub.com/CRICRACK/BENHF.HTM
http://www.crickcrackclub.com/CRICRACK/TELLBH.HTM

The show at the DU Players was produced by the Narrative Arts Club in collaboration with the Dublin University Players (student drama society) and the School of English at Trinity College, with additional sponsorship from the Embassy of Denmark.

The Narrative Arts Club was founded in September 2005 to promote innovative storytelling for young adult audiences in Dublin:
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/71918
http://tinyurl.com/2barxo

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Grendel-Jesper with virtuoso Troels
author by The Oh-Aissieux - Narrative Arts Clubpublication date Sun Oct 21, 2007 22:41author address author phone


The show was followed by a very erudite discussion, where we learnt that the watering-can combines three instruments in one: trumpet, flute and drum. We were perplexed to discover that the Old English watering-can is marked in litres.

Grendel-Jesper at the DU Players Theatre
Grendel-Jesper at the DU Players Theatre

Troels plays the watering-can for the DU Players
Troels plays the watering-can for the DU Players

Thanks
author by The Oh-Aissieux - Narrative Arts Clubpublication date Mon Oct 22, 2007 20:43author address author phone

Thanks to everybody who made the show possible, and in particular:
Jesper, Troels and the Telling Theatre
Ciarán O'Melia, Colm McNally and the Committee of the DU Players
Alice Jorgensen, Elizabeth McCarthy and the School of English at TCD
Mikkel Hess and the Embassy of Denmark
Kieran Owen and the Event Guide

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/84746

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