Be A Wolf

Related Content

• "Beardo": Delightfully Bizarre Retelling of Rasputin
  April 6, 2011
• Ashkon Joins Berkeley's Shotgun Players for a New Musical About Rasputin
  April 1, 2011
• Ten Must-See Spring Season Bay Area Plays
  January 12, 2011
• Rock Legend
  June 4, 2008
• Also Playing
  June 11, 2008

More About

• Jessica Jelliffe
• Jason Craig
• Dave Malloy

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Ask any beat cop or ex-boyfriend -- no two people view the same event identically. Add a few years and you'll get a few more versions of the story. So what of a tale that has been told and retold for more than a thousand years? Academics have pored over Beowulf since it was written down. Some claim that Grendel was descended from Cain and all 3,183 lines are Christian in origin and pagan only in context; others have said that's hogwash, twaddle, clap, and trap, and the poem was clearly passed down through recitation using oral-formulaic composition. In any case, there's a lot of wiggle room, which will be wiggled in by Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage, a song-play written by the singular Jason Craig of Banana Bag & Bodice. This is the same mind that gave us a heart-rending musical based on a sandwich and a blood-thirsty cat, and an apocalyptic love story set in a sewer. The cast includes BB&B co-founder Jessica Jelliffe and members of the Shotgun Players, with a live band led by BB&B composer Dave Malloy (you may remember him as the shaggy buffalo behind the keys in Sandwich).
May 18-June 22, 5 p.m., 2008