‘The Canterbury Tales: Part One’ & ‘The Canterbury Tales: Part Two’, Perth Fringe Festival 2013

Dublin Core

Title

‘The Canterbury Tales: Part One’ & ‘The Canterbury Tales: Part Two’, Perth Fringe Festival 2013

Subject

Canterbury Cathedral, carpenter, comedy, court, death, drama, flood, flour miller, Fringe Festival, Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400), King Arthur, knight, KNUTS, maiden, medieval literature, medieval poetry, Medieval Romance, modern adaptation, old hag, performance, Perth, pilgrim, pilgrimage, Science Fiction, shrine, space, Stephen Lee, Stephen Quinn, The Canterbury Tales, ‘The Franklin’s Tale’, ‘The Merchant’s Tale’, ‘The Miller’s Tale’, ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’, ‘The Reeve’s Tale’, ‘The Wife of Bath’s Tale’, Thomas Becket, Victorian Melodrama, villain, vulcan, WA, Western, Western Australia.

Description

This production by theatre company KNUTS is a modern adaptation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales in two parts. Adapted by Stephen Quinn and directed by Stephen Lee, it transposes stories from Chaucer’s original text into a variety of different genres, ranging from Western to silent film, Victorian melodrama and a Shakespearean version of a Medieval Romance. Part One includes renditions of ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’, ‘The Miller’s Tale’ and ‘The Reeve’s Tale’, and Part Two ‘The Franklin’s Tale’, The Wife of Bath’s Tale’ and ‘The Merchant’s Tale’. This production featured as part of the Perth Fringe Festival in 2013, where ‘The Canterbury Tales: Part One’ was performed from 7 February to 13 February and ‘The Canterbury Tales: Part Two’ was performed the following week from 14 February to 19 February 2013. A positive review of ‘The Canterbury Tales: Part Two’ from The West Australian can be read at: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/entertainment/a/-/entertainment/16159623/review-the-canterbury-tales-part-two/.

In Chaucer’s original The Canterbury Tales, written in the late fourteenth century, the narrator joins a group of 29 pilgrims who are about to set out on a journey from Southwark to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. He proposes that each member of the group tell two stories to entertain them on their journey, and proceeds to record each of these ‘tales’. The teller of the best story was to be rewarded with a free meal at the expense of the rest of the group.

Creator

Written by Geoffrey Chaucer
Adapted by Stephen Quinn
Directed by Stephen Lee

Source

FringeWorld Festival Website (https://www.fringeworld.com.au/home/)

Date

Part One: 7 February 2013 - 13 February 2013
Part Two: 14 February 2013 – 19 February 2013

Rights

Fringe Festival & KNUTS Theatre Company

Format

Performance in different genres, including Western, carry on film, silent movie, science fiction, ‘mock Shakespeare’, Victorian melodrama.