Événement

Sir Gawain and The Green Knight

The tale of Sir Gawain is a medieval epic of dying and renewal, winter and spring, death and birth, and reveals the code of medieval chivalry and honor that emanates from a benevolent nature. The Green Knight is life, harvested but renewed. The cycle in this work begins and ends on the winter solstice. In that darkest time of the year, nature rejuvenates itself; and in that rejuvenation is hope beyond death. Pagan gods as well as Christian ones have drawn from this deep well of natures power and mystery.

To spare the life of his beloved king Arthur, the noble Sir Gawain accepts a wager from a green giant which entails exchanging a little head chopping. First Gawain is to chop off the green giants head, and the following year, it will be Sir Gawains turn to put his head under the ax. Of course complications ensue between first chop and last.

Ron Pullins, playwright and publisher, has adapted Sir Gawain and the Green Knight into a modern play. The original is a medieval romance poem written in Middle English; a unique and powerfully raw Celtic story. This is a beautiful poem of seasons and life in medieval times, of honor and duty, and romance and temptation and the cycle of nature.
This adaptation is based on a 1917 translation and is pleasingly modernized, maintaining the sense of the far away and the romantic air of the original Anglo Saxon tale depicting Celtic notions of nature and change with an added sense of mischievous amusement. Pullins has retained an element of pageantry in the work and allowed for audience involvement to come dressed in the style of the times, and to respond as part of the chorus.