“There is no happily ever after in Beowulf,” says professor Louise Flynn during the first act of Beowulf in Afghanistan.
In the play’s world premiere, now playing at the Great Canadian Theatre Company, the epic poem overtakes the imagination of Canadian soldier Grant Cleary after he is knocked unconscious during the war in Afghanistan. Cleary plunges into the myth of Beowulf, where he navigates the titular character’s journey of courage and heroism against a backdrop of modern war.
Indeed, neither Laurie Fyffe’s play nor the Beowulf legend have a particularly happy ending. But Beowulf in Afghanistan, directed by Kate Smith, goes beyond simple plot in its exploration of what makes a hero, as well as the aftermath of violence.
In the original Germanic legend, Beowulf kills the monster Grendel, who has taken over a North Germanic tribe’s great hall. Beowulf later also kills Grendel’s mother, and becomes King of the Geats. Knowing Beowulf in advance would certainly help to understand this play’s more granular plot moments, but that’s not strictly necessary to enjoy Smith’s production.
The polished two-person cast (Micah Jondel DeShazer and Michelle LeBlanc) beautifully navigates Fyffe’s intricate plot. Beowulf in Afghanistan follows Cleary’s hallucinations in the fantasy world of Beowulf, interwoven into his current warzone reality with bits of his past as a student. Shifting between the timelines, Cleary finds himself guided by Flynn, who ushers him through Beowulf’s journey and the lessons he learns along the way. When the former student and professor reconnect years after the conflict in the Middle East, they hash out Beowulf’s meaning and themes.
The back-and-forth timeline is sometimes a touch muddled and hard to follow due to similarities in dialogue between eras. As well, John Doucet’s clean and simple set design doesn’t change much as the play flits between scenes. That said, the fragmented narrative fleshes out a nuanced depiction of conflict’s emotional impact, and how art can be a source of comfort. There are also charming moments of levity, with sprinkles of humorous dialogue throughout the play.
Smith’s visual allusions to Beowulf, woven into Cleary’s journey throughout the play, are this production’s strongest conceit. Under varying blue and red lighting by Martin Conboy, we see the actors’ shadows projected along the back wall like towering, monstrous figures, as Cleary channels Beowulf and defeats his world’s monsters.
It’s sometimes easy to succumb to confusion amidst the multiple story arcs as they bleed together, given the minimal shifts in tone and dialogue between time periods. However, Ali Berkok’s spine-tingling sound design accompanies Conboy’s shadowy visuals, making for a high level of engaging detail for the story-within-a-story framing device to flourish.
DeShazer portrays Cleary with charming likeability and coolness, navigating Fyffe’s plot intricacies with confidence and poise. In the first act, he slips from being a distressed soldier in anguished pain to a reluctantly determined Beowulf hero, all while harnessing a natural charm that ensures he lands each punchline.
Alongside him, LeBlanc’s Flynn is just as riveting. LeBlanc’s gravelly voice and affected hobble fit the archetype of a guiding figure for our hero’s adventure. While LeBlanc occasionally stumbled over lines at the performance I attended, her performance ably suggests Flynn’s standoffishness, as well as her intelligence. LeBlanc is at her best when reciting the Old English Beowulf text with a cadence of an engaging lecturer, then translating it into modern language for the audience.
When the adventure dies down in Beowulf in Afghanistan’s second act, DeShazer and Leblanc are given slightly more to work with, thanks to a simpler concept and more organic dialogue. Years after Cleary returns from the war — with a limp as a physical reminder of his time abroad — he finds himself at one of Flynn’s academic conferences. The two reconnect in Flynn’s office.
It’s in this singular, prolonged scene, there are noticeable spurts of greatness. Coupled with DeShazer’s sincerity and soft expressions, and Leblanc’s amusing jabs and glares, the characters tap in to both academic and existential queries. Who could have written Beowulf? Can war build something worthwhile when lives are destroyed in the process? The latter is a particularly fitting question to ask in a show that started performances the day after Remembrance Day.
These glimpses of thoughtfulness are still at the mercy of pacing issues and over-stuffed sequences of dialogue that add little to the story. But at the heart of the play lies an honest attempt to reflect on heroism, conflict, and the intersection between the two. For Cleary, understanding Beowulf is not as important as immersing himself in the story. During battle, Beowulf is Cleary’s lifeboat, which he clings to in order to survive.
At the end of Act Two, Cleary admits to still not understanding Beowulf’s ending, during which the hero slays a dragon to save his kingdom, knowing he will have to die in the process. Not necessarily a happily ever after. But this does not lessen his appreciation for the epic poem.
Instead, he reflects on the power of art as a source of comfort that offers new ways to look upon life. And maybe Beowulf in Afghanistan’s purpose is just that: Even if a work of art does not make sense to all of us, it might be impactful and significant to the people who need to hear it most.
Beowulf in Afghanistan runs at GCTC until November 24. Tickets are available here.
Intermission reviews are independent and unrelated to Intermission’s partnered content. Learn more about Intermission’s partnership model here.
WRITTEN BY
Alexa MacKie
Alexa MacKie is a journalism and law honours student at Carleton University in Ottawa. She dabbles in all areas as a freelance reporter, but her favourite coverage is of the arts and local communities, with bylines in Apartment613, the Glebe Report, and the Charlatan. She likes to read, write, listen to show tunes, and binge watch new seasons of her favourite TV shows.
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