Ragnarok – the previews

Rehearsal photo Mike Kwasniak

There has been a flurry of press interest in Eastern Angles next show, RAGNAROK, which starts previewing on Thursday 11 September (details here).

Ragnarok featured in The Guardian Guide’s theatre pick of the weeks this weekend. (6 September) and the show also featured in The Guardians Top Tickets for the week (see here).

Ragnarok details a battle between the gods that marks the end of the an old world and the start of a new order…The director is Hal Chambers who did such a good job on Sam Rose in the Shadows at Edinburgh last year (Guardian Guide)

On Saturday – the East Anglian Daily Times’
Andrew Clarke covered the show in a dramatic double page spread which featured an extended conversation with the shows director Hal Chambers. You can read the full article here.

Charles’ script is one of the most epic and challenging I have ever read and it was impossible to resist…It’s an extraordinary scrip..we want audiences to feel that this is a new version of an old story…a very timeless story

Earlier in the month In Prepare to Meet the Gods – Andrew Clarke had met Charles Way for the Suffolk Magazine

In that interview Charles describes Ragnarok as:-

a spectacular looking production that blends great puppets with live action … It’s a large scale piece of epic theatre. In Wagner’s take on these stories it’s very much about the gods and their relationship with men. Our story is about the gods’ internal workings. It’s their story and how they relate to one another… It’s a big Game of Thrones type battle except the gods have superpowers. They are larger-than-life figures who are constantly fighting another race of giants. They are constantly at war and their universe is in constant turmoil.”

Wayne Savage’s piece for the EADT Event supplement is a very funny interview with actors Anthony ‘my nymphing days are behind me’ Gabriel (who plays Odin) and Sarah Thom (who plays the Seeress).

‘We keep finding new stuff everytime we look at it. It’s such a fantastic piece of theatre that won’t disappoint. I’m watching the bits I’m not in, putting myself purely as an audience member going ‘wow’… (Anthony Gabriel)

Steve Hawthorne of In Suffolk meets Charles Way in this detailed interview where he chats with the writer about the contemporary resonances of the Norse Myths to modern day.

“The great thing about these myths is that they allow you to look at the same questions that scientists are asking now. ‘What was the beginning? What will be the end?’ It is fascinating to read these myths and see these pagan people, living before the Age of Reason, who somehow reached an understanding about the beginning, middle and end of Mankind and who managed to make narrative sense out of it.”

Ragnarok in rehearsal

Ipswich24 preview finds similarities to the classic myths, and the rivalry between the Norse Gods and Giants, to more contemporary events

With fire, water, gigantic puppets and an amazing cast of legendary characters like Odin, Thor, and the trickster Loki the play parallels the skirmishes between the great super powers of America and Russia.

Andrew Cann’s piece for Ipswich Spy focuses more on the story behind Ragnarok

Ragnarok’s focus on Viking mythology shines a light on the ancient stories that helped shape the East Anglian region. As the ‘daddy of the gods’ Odin prepares to sacrifice his own eye in return for wisdom, his son Thor wields his magical hammer and the rapscallion Loki shape-shifts his way out of mischief, the family’s world approaches a precipice. But who can save them…Christ-like Baldr, seductive Freya or the innocent Idun whose apples have mystical properties.

For more on the Ragnarok / Eastern Angles connection see this blog. And here is Eastern Angles artistic director, who visited Foz on BBC Radio Suffolk earlier this week to talk about the show. Listen in here:-

I’ll post some more previews which aren’t online yet tomorrow – but for now heres a link to the videos around Ragnarok. Find out more and book tickets for the show on the Eastern Angles web site here.