Travel on foot through lands real and imagined during this world premiere performance inspired by the ancient epic, BEOWULF. Presented by acclaimed site-specific theater company We Players, in collaboration with
Rova Saxophone Quartet and inkBoat Physical Theatre and Dance, and produced in partnership with Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture and San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.
In keeping with We Players’ signature performance events, this production of BEOWULF will move throughout an historic landscape as the story unfolds. This sweeping site-integrated production will commence at the historic Maritime Museum and Aquatic Park. Audiences will travel along the northern waterfront, encountering a nearly forgotten past filled with ceremony, honor and violence, warriors and shape-shifters - at the intersection of ancient and present time. Together the tribe will seek shelter and safety at the ancestral mead hall, where all are invited to break bread together as the experience unfolds. Danger lurks in the shadows without and within, an unknown terror is always just out of view.
BEOWULF explores darkness and light, power and conquest, monsters and humans, through startling imagery, rich soundscape and fervent physicality.
BEOWULF celebrates the culmination of We Players’ unprecedented 5 year cooperative agreement with SF Maritime National Historical Park, the first of its kind in the nation. The production is a multi-discipline collaboration with
Rova Saxophone Quartet, preeminent musicians in the avant-garde jazz and improvisational music scene for nearly 4 decades, and inkBoat Physical Theatre and Dance led by Artistic Director Shinichi Iova-Koga. Iova-Koga and We Players’ Artistic Director Ava Roy co-direct this ensemble devised production, which takes inspiration and guidance from (and is loosely based on) the ancient anglo-saxon poem.
This production of BEOWULF radically departs from that most ancient poem of the same name. When we peel back the layers of story and character, what reveals itself? What dreams emerge? As we tell tales of legendary heroes and monsters, we also reflect on our current times. Join us to discover the weapons of word, body and sound created by We Players, inkBoat and
Rova Saxophone Quartet in this epic battle to discover, in the end, our humanity through the lens of monstrosity.