Anglo-Saxon attitudes

Have you ever heard Beowulf? Not heard of the legendary medieval epic - many of us had it thrust upon us either in school or in first year university English courses, and if not, the acclaim surrounding Seamus Heaney's 1999 translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic brought the ancient warrior to the foreground of the collective consciousness.

No, the question is: have you ever heard the poem - heard the rolling cadences of the meter, heard the beautiful compound words - bone-house, wordhoard, whale's road - had the chance to listen to the tale of life and death and friendship and monsters and treasures of gold?

It is Felix Nobis and Thomas Conway's ambition that you will hear it and see it. Their partnership - with Nobis as translator/actor and Conway as director - has resulted in a dramatic version of Beowulf, a judicious editing of the 3,182-line poem into a performance piece that satisfies not only the needs of the stage but retains the beauty of the Old English language.

The poem that we know as Beowulf is the oldest piece of English literature extant, and was transcribed more than 1,000 years ago; Nobis's relationship with the poem began in 1998 - and for better or worse, Heaney's version was hitting the shelves when Nobis was about a third of the way through. "His translation has made an enormous difference, and in a way, we're getting some dividends from that," says Nobis. "I think if you turned up out of the blue with a translation and said `Oh, I'm doing Beowulf,' a lot of people would go, `Sorry, I have to feed the dog tonight.' Seamus Heaney generated an interest in the poem and brought it to life again for so many people."

Nobis and Conway met at University College, Cork, where Nobis has recently finished his MA in medieval theatre, and Conway is completing his MA in theatre studies. Having worked together in the past, via the drama society at UCC, Nobis chose to show the initial drafts of his theatrical translation to Conway, whose encouragement led to a commitment with the Granary Theatre in January of 2000 to put on a work-in-progress reading of the piece. The good response, and the many lessons learned led to a commitment from both to craft the piece and make it performance-ready.

"I came in with one determination in mind, and that was to make it dramatic," says Conway. "I was pitching for very strong decisions, pitching for something that would strike a chord with our modern sensibilities, and for tying things up so that it's less episodic and more structurally satisfying theatrically."

"We weren't in perfect agreement all the way through," concedes Nobis, "but it was to the betterment of the work. We constantly challenged each other and approached things with different ideas, and I think that the result of that is very positive."

"There were two very separate relationships to the poem," says Conway. "I was only interested in it being a very strong dramatic event, but Felix had a very deep relationship with it in terms of its language. It created an area of negotiation that was always fruitful," he concludes diplomatically, and they both laugh.

Nobis carefully edited the poem, and concentrated on the core episodes of the piece: Beowulf's triumph over Grendel, his confrontation with Grendel's mother in the lake, and his deadly battle with the gold-hoard protecting dragon. Nobis loses none of the beauty of the language, and gains all of the focus that is required in a piece of dramatic literature. "When you only hear something once, you want things to be clear, you want to be able to follow the story, enjoy the language, and draw your own conclusions - that's what I wanted to achieve in the translation." The result is beautifully alliterative, and makes excellent use of the compound words that seem an inseparable element in any translation of the piece.

"There is an element of the old English language in which they construct these very large words, which carry a lot of weight" says Nobis. "They're joining two very simple words together," Conway cuts in, "and there's great strength in it. Like `bone-house' for the body. It's a very muscular way of using language."

Nobis continues. "It's an old English form called `kenning', which is not to say that the `body is like a house of bones' but simply to call it the `bone-house', or to call the ocean the `swan's-way' or the `whale's-road'. I certainly enjoyed mulling over these words, and coming up with possibilities, and finding the shared resonances with the originals."

Conway expands: "And I think that's something that Heaney recuperated into the Irish tradition, kind of consciously." "Stop talking about Heaney, now," mutters Nobis. The lads have been on the road, on and off, for about a year, performing in a variety of venues, from open-mike poetry sessions to the Edinburgh festival.

Nobis enthuses: "It's this romantic notion that you can turn up with a candlestick and a book on a bus and spend an hour setting the lights. We're ready to do it where you can turn up somewhere and say `Anybody want to see this show, I'll perform it this evening'. "

His equanimity was tested in St John's Theatre and Arts Centre, in their most recent "one-night only" performance in Listowel, Co Kerry. Crisp-munching soul-bearers who have yet to see 12 winters (translation: restive children) were perhaps not the best crowd for the tale: while suitably gory to hold their attention, the language sailed over most of their heads.

It was a testament to Nobis's professionalism that he didn't lose the thread, and to the strength of the story that those who have seen a fair few more than twelve winters pass could still become absorbed in the show despite the ruckus.

More touring is on the cards, and the show has a self-sufficiency - Nobis really did arrive into Listowel on the bus, with candlesticks - that ensures it will travel often and well. While both men have future plans beyond Beowulf, the show has an open-ended future thanks to its simplicity and the timelessness of its tale. Most of all, they're still enjoying the process. "It's `The Beat Beowulf'," laughs Conway, "It's `The Antique Roadshow'. "

Beowulf opens at City Arts Centre on Monday (March 12th) and runs until Friday. Details from 01 677 0643