Beggarsbelief is a company that specialises in staging the impossible. It has given us Ben Hur and the 1966 World Cup final, and now it weaves together many different versions of the story of St George. It is certainly not going to let a little thing such as the need to stage the siege of Antioch get in the way.
Only a few football fans still believe that the demoted saint was a true Brit or had much to do with dragon-slaying. So Beggarsbelief puts its own spin on a story that pops up across the world from the Qur'an to the medieval English Mummers plays.
But while Carl Heap's production is packed with inventive ideas - umbrellas standing in for swords, shopping trolleys for horses and the siege of Antioch enacted with the audience's help - it is bogged down by its determination to offer a multifaceted George of many cultural identities. It is a relief to finally get to the traditional princess-about-to-be-immolated-by-dragon coda, not least because the selection process is staged as an audience lottery, and the sight of so many small children thinking they are about to be fed to a dragon warmed the cockles of my witchy heart.
Central to this version is the legend of the Coventry George - an unlikely hero who is duped by the wily Crusader king into believing that the dragon he longs to slay is the infidel. But of course George and the infidel realise the error of their ways, and the final message - we must stop killing each other - is nice, if as limp as a three-day-old lettuce. Some of the writing is wilted, too - it cries out for more wit.
So, overall, a wildly uneven show with flashes of brilliance. With work, it would be guaranteed to bring out your inner little boy - no matter what your age or gender.
· At Corn Exchange, Brighton (01273 709 709), on March 16 and 17, then touring.
