Review: Beowulf: a British Panto

The British pantomime (or “panto”) dates back to the Middle Ages and remains a staple of holiday entertainment in Britain. It is often aimed at children and features song, dance, buffoonery, slapstick, cross-dressing, in-jokes, topical references, audience participation, mild sexual innuendo and … candy.

Beowulf: a British Panto by John Savournin is the current offering of Splinter Group Theatre in a coproduction with West Sacramento Community Center.

There is a cast of about 13 people (musical director Kathleen Poe is not listed among the actors, though she is the narrator). It is two hours of hilarious mayhem that bear only a slight resemblance to the oldest long poem of English literature.

Set in Denmark in the 11th century, Beowulf tells the story of King Hrothgar and the attacks on his castle by monsters. Beowulf is the hero who comes to kill the monsters and, in the process, awakens a dragon (Grendel), which then must be destroyed. The dragon’s mother is not happy.

Not much funny in the plot, but in this production, everything becomes a joke (sometimes a very corny, old, familiar joke, the more off-color the better). The children in the audience, especially, loved it.

Elliot Herzer, in the cross-dressing role of Grendel’s mother, is worth the price of admission. Breanna Reilly as Hrothmund, the king’s daughter, is also excellent, and Jonathan Plon is the perfect hero.