Review: GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT at Park Theatre

Written by Felix Grainger and Gabriel Fogarty-Graveson (who each undertake roles as members of the cast) this fanciful yarn unsurprisingly centres on Gawain (Grainger) a relatively dull and unexceptional office lackey, who manages to be ignored and overlooked for promotion despite 10 year service at his place of work Camelot Corp which offers cyber security services. With the Christmas party looming and still unable to pluck up the courage to approach the object of his workplace crush Gwynne (Laura Pujos), Gawain's future looks resolutely dull and uninspiring. What is worse, it appears that the maniacal boss of the organisation Arthur (Cara Steele) and her henchman Lance (Fogerty-Grayson) have decided to dispense with Gawain's services altogether — not least because he won't get on board by wearing his name badge with its enforced Arthurian nomenclature.

So far so dull. But as anyone who has attended a playwriting course will attest, you should start by outlining a scenario and then introduce an element which causes things to change. Here, that change is represented by the appearance of a mysterious green masked figure who looms large in the elevator during the office party and challenges the largely stupefied attendees to some sort of duel. Large chopping implements at the ready and off we go. The upshot is that Gawain is deemed to have redeemed himself and as a reward, remains employed for the next year until the anniversary of the mysterious visitor sets him on a quest whereupon he meets all sorts of other weird and peculiar individuals before his final confrontation.

Of course it's all a load of absolute tongue-in-cheek hogwash and schoolboy silliness, but cleverly woven into the second half's dialogue, are multitudinous references to occurrences, artefacts and conversations which have taken place earlier in the play and the writing duo have clearly expended a great deal of time and thought making sure that however zany and daft their creation may be, it actually makes sense to the audience. Directed by Kelly Ann Stewart the cast (which includes additional voiceover work by Shaun Chambers) deploy a variety of physical and vocal guises and expend a huge amount of energy in retaining our attention as they deliver this yarn which pays homage to the original chivalric story. They are also not averse to self-mockery, with one quip referencing the on-a-shoe-string costumes being a direct result of the budget being blown on the elevator.

Finally, it would be remiss not to make mention of the considerable behind the scenes contributions of the creative team (Simon Nicholas, Caitlin MacGregor, Ciéranne Kennedy-Bell and Kezia Tomsett) who have conjured set, lighting costumes and an audible score to accompany the onstage antics.