This Epic fits the bill

THE EPIC Ten Tonne Sparrow Theatre Royal Backspace, Hobart, March 22-23

RECENTLY I was at the Adelaide Festival, packing a wealth of great theatre experience into just a few days.

The thing that characterised all the best shows was a strong central idea. If you have a good idea to start with, your show is well on the way to success.

The Epic is a beautifully simple yet terrific idea: to retell epic tales, familiar and obscure, from many ages, and from cultures around the globe. But of course an idea is not enough. You need skilled communicators to bring your idea to life.

The Epic has two engaging, sweetly self-aware storytellers in Finn O’Branagáin and Scott Sandwich.

Never po-faced, they approach their task with a mix of reverence and cheeky impertinence. Their skill and precision is overlayed with an enjoyable and accessible untidiness.

These stories of heroes and antiheroes may be familiar (though many aren’t) but the quality of telling is unexpected and refreshing. Energetic and charming, they create a show that is intelligent, educational and very funny. Along the way, they consider the way stories are fashioned by the storyteller and how, in turn, worlds are fashioned out of stories.

If you missed it, you will probably catch The Epic at a future festival or fringe. It deserves a run as long as the legendry tales into which it breathes fresh life.