A Viking Tale – The Story Of Sigurd The Dragonslayer
Four men, one woman, dozens of characters, a smattering of musical instruments… and not a horned helmet in sight!
The story of Sigurd is an ancient one and has been retold, stolen from and presented in a wealth of ways over hundreds of years, in fact it’s almost certain that at least some small part of this story will be familiar to you! Here the always wonderful SOOP present the original story using five performers, a few basic props and some puppets to create their first truly child friendly show.
Judging by the young lad who was sat a couple of seats along from me; this really will appeal to children. He was mesmerised by the puppetry, appropriately scared by the dragon and his attention barely wavered throughout.
The story is essentially a simple one and is narrated by the dwarf Andvari, whose own misadventures created the ones our titular Northman will soon face. Sigurd is a young man growing to adulthood and facing up to his legacy as the greatest of all Vikings. Played with wide eyed wonder by Ed Owen-Jones, our titular hero must overcome a number of woes to take his place in Valhalla. When first we meet our hero, he’s still in training, being taught all he knows by the resolute Regin, a man with dark secrets that will haunt our hero and influence his undertakings. Regin could not be further away from Grimhild, the shrill in-keep who interjects herself and her two children into Sigurd’s plan, but both (as well as Andvari) are played with aplomb by Alistair Smyth, who adds a number of deft comic touches to proceedings and has the finest moustache I’ve ever seen on a stage!
With a number of tasks ahead of him, from fighting dragons to wooing the shield-maiden Brunhild by way of dealing with the eerily similar offspring of barkeep with lustrous facial hair, even the greatest of Vikings needs a sidekick, and Sigurd finds his in the form of Grani, the grandest of all horses. Of course a horse can’t speak, but even without lines Daniel Scott creates a fully realised character whose loyalty and stubbornness are integral to success. Caine Stanton adds comedy as Grimhild’s daughter Gudrun… and her sun Gunnar (who sounds eerily similar to Prince Charles), while as Brunhild Corinna Jane adds ferocity to the all-important love interest!
The cast take on multiple roles throughout, from bar room braggadocios to onerous crows by way of a huge and fierce dragon and most of them also take up instruments throughout to accompany their cast-mates (most notably when Smyth adds immensely to the sense of dread with use of his upright bass and a couple of effects pedals).
The script, by Lucy Flannery covers a huge amount of ground in just an hour and twenty minutes and as such may be a little too much for younger viewers to follow, but it contains some fantastic lines and set pieces, which are brought to life wonderfully by the direction of SOOP co-founder Nathan Chapman and are ably assisted by the creations of puppet-maker Mike Bayliss.
If you have young ones, you really owe it to them to head along and check out this wonderfully vibrant piece of theatre… and you’ll have a fair few laughs yourself!
A Viking Tale – The Story Of Sigurd The Dragonslayer will next be seen at The Groundlings Theatre, Portsmouth on Saturday July 6th and will be performed throughout the south over coming months. For more info head to http://www.soop.org.uk/
