Returns to Bedford Park Festival this Saturday for one night only
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One of Britain’s best-known screen and stage stars, Julian Glover, is preparing for his long-awaited return this Saturday (June 15) in the role which he’s made his own over the past 30 years.
As the Anglo-Saxon storyteller, he will deliver his acclaimed adaptation of the heroic epic poem Beowulf at St Michael & All Angels church in Chiswick, at 8pm as part of the 47 th Bedford Park Festival. The tale of long battles, celebrated heroes, monsters and warriors is one of the most important works of early literature, and has inspired many films, plays, operas, graphic novels and computer games. You can read more on the Festival website:
http://www.bedfordparkfestival.org/e/61/beowulf-with-julian-glover
Glover is currently starring in the hit HBO TV series Game of Thrones - which this week became the most pirated TV show ever.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/22853888
He is also well-known for his roles in the James Bond, Indiana Jones, Doctor Who and Harry Potter franchises. Julian Glover first performed Beowulf in 1981. He says he heard the story of Beowulf at his mother’s knee, and was woken in the middle of the night by the memory of it.
“I believe that actors should always have something up their sleeve to pull out without relying on anyone else” he says. “Many years ago I did a one-man show about my godfather, the poet Robert Graves, and when that had run its course I remembered Beowulf and knew I just had to do it.”
He performed the epic poem for the first time at Bretforton Grange near Evesham on September 5 th 1981, followed by short runs at the Bristol Old Vic and the Lyric Hammersmith. Since then he’s performed it more than 100 times in venues all over the world, from a mead hall in Denmark and the Khan Theatre in Jerusalem to the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York.
In 2009, he appeared in Michael Woods’ much-praised BBC4 documentary on Beowulf, but it’s been ten years since he gave a public performance, at the British Library in London.
On Saturday June 15 th, (7.30 pm for 8pm) Glover will perform it again in the beautiful Arts & Crafts surroundings of St Michael & All Angels Church in Bedford Park, Chiswick. London W4. He will use his own version of the text, using modern language interspersed with quotes from the original Old English text. It was published in 1987 by Sutton Publishing with an introduction by Magnus Magnusson and illustrated by the renowned artist Sheila Mackie.
Julian Glover says that in the tradition of handing stories from one storyteller to another, his son Jamie Glover (Noises Off, Father Brown, Waterloo Road) intends to take it over from him.
St Michael & All Angels
BEDFORD PARK FESTIVAL
June 8th to 23rd 2013
http://www.bedfordparkfestival.org
June 12, 2013