Any story that survives the test of time will have a few battle scars. After 1,000 years of telling and retelling, who decides what the facts actually were? Shotgun Players and collaborating company Banana, Bag & Bodice have inspected the classic poem "Beowulf," adapting its powerful narrative to make a new play that is part homage and part parody. The show also uses music to subvert traditional expectations of the characters and explore the tale instrumentally from multiple perspectives.

Some would say the old-world character of Beowulf is a rugged warrior fighting for survival. Others would argue that he is fighting for the destruction of society. Is the great story a structurally pagan tale with Christian overtones or a Christian tale inspired by the book of Genesis? With so many contrary ideas, the only reasonable plan is to create a new version of "Beowulf," one where each narrator battles to tell the story from their own perspective.

By Jason Craig
Directed by Rod Hipskind
Music composed and performed by Dave Malloy

This production was created in collaboration with Banana, Bag & Bodice, winners of Fringe Festival Awards in San Francisco and Dublin, and two-time winner of "Best of Time Out New York." Jason Craig, playwright and founding member of Banana, Bag & Bodice, says: “What attracts me most about this classic text is how its poetry was born out of the oral tradition of storytelling, and how the narrative may have been obscured and altered before it was finally written down. Similar to Homer’s 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey,' and countless other ancient poems, 'Beowulf' and its narrative existed as many different variations as it was passed down through generations orally before being written down around 700AD. We’re creating an operatic piece using music, songs and multimedia to explore how a story transforms in the telling.”