FRINGE REVIEW: MYTHOS: RAGNAROK

MYTHOS: RAGNAROK

Caravanserai

Brighton Fringe

Review by Eric Page

What do you get when you mix Viking Norse mythology,  a lot of metallic golden lycra, some seriously hot bodies, delicious filthy comedy, a throbbing sound track and some wicked masks?  MYTHOS: RAGNAROK is what, one of the Fringes weirdest mashup’s in a festival known for strange combinations. This show utterly lives up to its publicity: Epic dark comedy combining Norse mythological storytelling with full-contact wrestling.

We join Odin and Loki in their struggle to overcome primeval giants, rival Gods and Goddesses, and each another’s ambitions in this dark comic adaption of classic Norse mythology, you might think you know about it from Marvel films, but this is raw myth, steaming, sweating, unvarnished for our modern minds, and all the better for it.

Weaving ancient myths, legends, and classic wrestling together Mythos create some of the most intense and thrilling fight scenes in the history of theatre, it’s live physical improvisation. The audience choose their sides, Brighton is fickle, as much in love with the evil as with the apparently good, we just want a good show, and an amazing Gun Show.

Odin leads us through his story and he could lead me though any story he wanted, I was transfixed by his abdomen muscles bellowing in and out as he loudly declaimed his story. In fact each and every one of his perfectly thick tattooed muscles flexing transfixed me, and quite a few other people in the audience, but let’s not swoon yet, that’s undignified.

See full tour  details here:

Yes this is prime beefcake, and magnificent LadyCake too, but with its tongue firmly in the cheeks. Odin plays it ‘straight’ which works very well, Locki is played with polysexual mischievous delights, every opportunity for a filthy innuendo taken and squeezed hard, this is hot lithe trickster god, the rest of the excellent diverse cast have fun with their amoral characters traits and vain power-hungry impulses and work off each other, working in random shouts from the audience, and showing off their talents, physical and otherwise with a wicked shameless charm.  I’m no expert on wrestling, but playing out the epic battles of the myths via wrestling matches works really well. There’s some stunning, jaw dropping fight choreography here, appearing vicious, hard, horrible, but always with extra loud thuds and crashs as the falls mount up. Adapting the narrative battles to the physical wrestling is brilliant to watch, gets your pulse up as you roar for your own brand of hero, and really keeps you engaged in the storyline as it unfolds. Most of us know, kind of, what happens to this lot of entitled ancient warriors and self-appointed gods, here we see them writhe and fight like spandex and leather clad marauding Kardashians in the Thunderdome.

It’s great fun, easy on the eye, funny as hell and one of the best fringe shows I’ve seen this year.

Myths were never meant to be read in books or watched on screens. They were crafted over hundreds of years to be performed live by story-tellers: to be felt, experienced and lived-through with an audience. This is what we have served up by the creator of the show Ed Gamester (he of the stunning thicc bod) who has found a way to bring wrestling to new audiences and reawaken mythologies in unexpected but attention keeping way.

You can learn more about Ed here on his website

Myths are more than stories: they express what it feels like to be alive and explain our experiences of the world around us. Myths prove we are no further away from our ancestors than a few carefully chosen words; engaging with mythology tugs at the threads that bind us together through history. This show, all throbbing muscle and wrestling on top holds a seriously affirming message at heart; that together we triumph, that death awaits us all at the end, that wicked or good we all end up the same and watching something together, shouting, feeling, being thrilled by a troupe of excellent physical actors and comedians as they share a gripping story is an excellent way to spend an evening.

We went for the eye candy, but left thrilled, enchanted and seriously entertained. If you’ve not seen it, run now to book.

Until Sat 3rd

Book tickets now, on the Fringe Website here