The Wuffings, The Times

From almost any angle, The Wuffings is a madly epic endeavour.   On a 90ft-wide cement stage covered by 21 tons of sand in the largest potting shed in Europe, Kevin Crossley-Holland and Ivan cutting stage a 7^th century power struggle between an Anglo-Saxon royal family and the first Christian missionaries.   Presented in partnership with the Year of the Opera and Music, Eastern Angles' production is infused with pastoral and folk melodies that owe more to the Sixties than the 600s.

That it seems inspired as much by Shakespeare as by Beowulf is par for the course.  The struggle itself has more to do with tribal politics than religion.   If Raedwald Wuffing is to become High King, he has to kowtow to Rome.   Stephen Finegold's disgruntled, charismatic king decides to play a subtle but dangerous percentage game.

Thanks to Carrie Thomas's Lady Macbeth-like performance as Edith, the battle between the Woden-worshippers and the gospel-mongers is dramatically uneven.   The Christians come across as slippery creeps who "spread guilt like dung" and the Angles monopolise the richest spiritual experiences.

My only serious gripe is that Crossley-Holland depends rather more on allegory than on action.   What keeps the whole thing alive is Fred Meller's pagan theme park and some canny performances, notably Alastair Cording's wonderfully shifty priest.   Tom Marshall puts up stout resistance as Raedwald's hard-line poet and adviser Lof.   And Melanie Barker has a disarmingly wholesome singing voice as Edith's benevolent sorceress. 

At times it can be a little too domestic for its own good.   But you can't help but be thrilled by the obligatory battle scene, cued by a blacksmith who turns a tub of water into sizzling steam with a sheaf of red hot swords.   It is undeniably one of the most eccentric cultural experiences you will see this summer.

Christopher James, The Times