Norse gods doomed in Shotgun's 'Ragnarok'

WITH THIS YEAR'S free summer park show, Berkeley's Shotgun Players finds itself between a "Ragnarok" and a hard place.
On the one hand, you've got all the storm and drama of the Norse gods. On the other, you've got, well, all the storm and drama of the Norse gods.
As gods go, Odin and his crew don't have the power and lightning- bolt glamour of the Greek gods, and their mythology is less commonly known (except maybe to those of us who remember the Thor comic books).
The Greeks are the Hollywood superstars, and the Norse gods are more basic cable personalities.
This might help explain why "Ragnarok: The Doom of the Gods" is not a wholly satisfying show.
Written by Conrad Bishop and Elizabeth Fuller of the Independent Eye theater company, and directed by Bishop, "Ragnarok" is told in the style of Greek theater with masks amid a Stonehenge-like cluster of stones (set and masks by Michael Frassinelli).
The masks are cartoonishly ugly, and so are some of the performances, and that's fun. But mixed in with the show's more irreverent aspects are some pompous, blow-hard theatrics -- like Bishop's choreography andFuller's dirge-like choral music -- that make the storytelling too self-important