Gods in the ring: punk theatre, working-class wrestling and Ragnarök
I should probably admit that my knowledge of wrestling is not contemporary. It lives somewhere back in the strange, televised world of the 1970s with characters like Catweazle and Kendo Nagasaki, looming out of World of Sport broadcasts with their beards, masks and half-mythical personas. Modern wrestling, for me at least, remains largely unexplored territory.
As it turns out, this is not a bad place to start. That’s because what Ed Gamester is doing with Mythos: Ragnarök, a touring production which collides Norse mythology with professional wrestling and theatre, has very little to do with nostalgia. Most theatre, Gamester suggests, arrives politely — years of development, funding rounds and a careful path towards opening night. But his show took a different route.
This review first appeared in Northern Soul.
