Together at last …

… unfortunately: The University Bookman: Epic, Rock, Camp, and Beowulf. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

By the time the play reverts to satirizing pompous professors, it is a relief. However, it is a short-lived relief because this part of the play starts to feel like a Saturday Night Live skit that doesn’t know when to quit. When the action returns to the purported reinvention of the poem, it becomes painfully clear that it has nothing to say; it is just uninspired camp. Hipster Beowulf wanders around with the Admiral Stockdale “Why am I here?” look, and monsters die offhandedly, but not humorously. In short, the play doesn’t respect the original poem enough to reinvent or satirize it.