Writers: Felix Grainger & Gabriel Fogarty-Graveson
Director: Kelly Ann Stewart
When a giant Green Knight appears in Arthur’s court at Christmas and challenges whoever dares to chop his head off, Gawain steps forward. Gawain agrees to accept a tit-for-tat axe-stroke in a year’s time at the legendary Green Chapel and promptly beheads his challenger. But the Green Knight picks up his severed head and walks off with it, reminding Gawain of his promise as he leaves. This is the basic story of a celebrated chivalric poem from the much-parodied Middle Ages.
Park Theatre’s new version of Gawain and the Green Knight follows the original late-fourteenth-century tale surprisingly closely. It even uses medieval-style alliterative verse patterns in lines of rhyming narration. But it’s reset in the offices of Camelot corporation, where Gawain is actually Gary from cybersecurity, and King Arthur is the new female CEO (Cara Steele) who’s decided the firm needs an “Arthurian rebrand”. Workers are forced to use a comic corporate “Huzzah” when they greet each other. Felix Grainger, an endearing Gawain, co-wrote the script with Gabriel Fogarty-Graveson, who plays angry, ambitious yes-man Lance as well as a mysterious “Bullingdon-club, badger-baiting” lord, who later invites Gawain to stay in his castle.
The script has echoes of Monty Python and the Holy Grail with a similar clash of modern and medieval registers as one of its main sources of humour. But it’s also highly original with funny one-liners like “Troy would still be standing if it had had better malware protection”. “You’re like a house with the lights on, but the family have all gone out for a weekend in Walberswick,” the boss tells Gawain, one of several lines that leads to a clever series of call-backs in the second half.
The comedy fuses tropes from sword-and-sorcery fantasies, whose roots lie in just this type of Arthurian poetry, with images invoking classic office-worker-as-soulless-drone dramas. An ivy-clad Dryad, seductively played by Steele, channels Galadriel from Lord of the Rings, including her unnerving line “I know what it is you seek”. And the Kafkaesque demands of Camelot Corp’s baffling new regimen are reminiscent of Apple TV’s unsettling office-based thriller Severance. There are shades of Severance, too, in the impersonal, white, symmetrical office set design by Simon Nicholas, where the ever-present elevator ushers in, with a ding, not just another floor, but a new state of being.
The designs are simple, but effective and a source of irreverent comedy. “Why are they wearing that?” asks Gawain of two strange-looking supernatural characters. “We blew all the budget on the elevator,” says the Dryad. The varied score and sound design by Kezia Tomsett, who has worked on several BBC shows, and the equally dynamic lighting by Caitlin MacGregor both help to enhance the setting.
Laura Pujos sings a haunting French song and excels as relatable, modern-day Sarah/Gwynne, Gawain’s co-worker and office crush, and later as Hetty, his flirtatious medieval hostess. The second half of the show is where Gawain’s quest really gets going, giving costume designer Ciéranne Kennedy-Bell, whose previous work ranges from Black Mirror to Matthew Bourne’s ballets, a chance to shine. Hetty wears a pink-and-white smock and kirtle, and princess-style conical head dress. Her game-hunting husband also has a hilarious medieval outfit, complete with bi-coloured hose, tunic and elaborate hat. Gawain sports a knitted helmet and chain mail, under a red-and-white tabard.
Underlying the cosplay and silliness are some slightly more earnest ideas about work, love, honesty, autonomy and the nature of boredom. “This is not just a job. It’s an honour. It’s a duty,” insists the new CEO, firing anyone who won’t conform to the new ethos. Merlin is an AI assistant, amusingly voiced by Shaun Chambers. The actors all trained at London’s now-closed Stanislavskian Drama Centre, and several have worked together before. Grainger, Fogarty-Graveson and Steele are founders of Make It Beautiful theatre company, co-producing the show with Park Theatre.
The company’s previous work includes medieval-themed improv and bittersweet contemporary comedies. Here, they combine the two. Kelly Ann Stewart’s pacy direction helps keep the ensemble of superlative actors on track in a play that she describes as blending “mundanity with mythic adventure – comedy, chaos, magic and heart all in one.” This is a well-crafted show that delivers feel-good festive entertainment.
Runs until 24 December 2025
