Welsh National Opera's Die Fledermaus

As a young critic I am an avid theatre goer but Opera? It has never evoked enthusiasm or excitement and stereotypes abounded: looking at it with untrained eyes and ears it felt a tad out of reach. Then ... The opportunity to see Welsh National Opera’s newest rendition of Die Fledermaus landed in my email, and never one to snub being proved wrong, I saw an intriguing challenge. I was happily proved wrong, Opera has something for everyone; it’s not just for the older, richer or classically leant. I am particularly glad it was Die Fledermaus, as its highly satirical content – originally and in this rendition – waltzed away from my suspicions of an over-zealous and highly emotional tragedy.

As a newbie I found that producer John Copley has created a clear-cut, well informed performance. There are so many facets to this Operetta; it juggles its stunning period costume and ornate set with contemporary influences and a truly international team. The modern piece of the pie is the genius comedy; from locked up bankers and politicians citing the prison as a second home, comparing characters to Bill Odie and his birds. Moments with Frosch the jailer being sung ‘Just one Cornetto, give it to me’ by an inmate and quoting ‘Go Compare’. There are comic moments for those truly into their Operas with nods to other opera’s via Alfred, Rosalinde’s admirer.  Nuccia Focile’s Italian accent is clear, yet she pulls off her spoken lines and the necessary Hungarian accent with panache, Desmond Barrit’s strong Welsh accent lends itself to his dialogue of depreciative and sharp satire. 

The plot itself is the elaborate ‘Revenge of the Bat’ designed by Dr Faulke’s, having been slighted by his friend Eisenstein at a previous fancy dress party and as entertainment for the bored youth Prince Orlofsky. Whilst the side narrative of Adele and Sister Ida adds meat to the already light hearted content, it was an added extra. Now this is nothing towards the spectacular performance of Joanne Boag (Adele Rosalinse’s housemaid) or accompanying Anitra Blaxhall (Ida) but can only be laid at Johann Strauss feet in 1874 – another in joke that occurs, blaming Johann Strauss. 

 With plenty of drinking, dancing, mistaken identity and convenient role switching the narrative flows along at a pace, keeping the audience entertained. Each character is so full of charm and wit you could forgive them their slights, as Eisenstein says “[blame it on the Champagne]”.

For a newbie having the opera sung in English was a bonus, feeling more at home with a language I could understand and nothing seemed out of place or off kilter as sometimes can occur in translations. Although one distraction were the subtitles above as it followed the main vocal, making following the secondary vocals sung in unison difficult to track so there were parts where I lost out on pieces.

Integral to the Opera are of course the orchestra, the singers, and the dancing: the cast are decidedly enjoyable watch and listen to. The choreography is executed with flare: from the spectacular choral dances to the fumbling comic flirtations between Rosalind’s Hungarian Countess and Eisenstein’s Marquis Renard. The orchestra performed well throughout, manoeuvring cleverly and effortlessly from piece to piece.

Welsh National Opera’s performance of Die Fledermaus, thanks to the clearly amazing team behind the scenes and on the stage, was fantastic – especially for someone as fresh to Opera as me but from catching snippets from regular opera fans in the audience it was just as brilliant for them.

So please enjoy! Unfortunately this time around there was no opportunity for photos, for that, please blame technology!
For those new to Opera, http://www.fresh2opera.co.uk/ is a fantastic start to banish away all those excuses and suspicions about attending.

Welsh National Opera's Die Fledermaus is at Wales Millennium Centre from 12th Feb - 5th March.

National Theatre Wales first offering of 2011: Soul Exchange

National Theatre Wales have again pulled out the stops to create another piece of original yet extraordinary theatre, exploring another part of Welsh history.  Join in on the taxi-ride of a life time and enter a world which is at once alive and burgeoning but also full of history and personal stories,

Soul Exchange is a site specific performance but not in the conventional sense where it has simply been taken out of the theatre ‘space’. It is built around Butetown, celebrating the multi-cultural history and community that grew around the beginnings of the coal export industry. The performance is split into two parts, the taxi ride and the last part at the Coal Exchange. 

As soon as the audience queue to begin the Soul Exchange journey you enter its world: the dock ticket master sending you through, the passport photo’s where you absolutely cannot smile and the photographer kicks up a fuss if you so much as smirk (which is inherently funny: it is human nature to smile when told not to). A choir sings in the background and characters interact with the audience as they wait; grandmothers gossiping about their grandsons and offering to come around later for cups of tea, dock workers milling around and street sellers bartering their wares. Heading out to the taxis you pass a group huddled around a burning oil drum singing and banging away.

The taxi journey can be taken two ways; one is that the audience becomes the main character on the journey, second is that the audience is with the main character in the taxi following his movements. You are certainly drawn into the situation, experiencing everything as he would. The soon to be dad is in search of his own father and roots. Armed with a name and address that no longer exists, he and the taxi driver move from place to place picking up clues as to where he might find his father. As the audience listens to the actor’s on CD we are driven around Butetown passing by each stage of the journey: the community centre, church, tower blocks, and last of all the Coal Exchange. Amongst the streets the communities of past and present collide, with a 1920s/30s guitarist opposite a 90s hooded youth playing music from the car radio. A 70’s working class young couple arguing and an early century fruit and veg seller grace the streets; trilby wearing, Delboy style business men work their charm alongside modern ballet and street dancers. The young man finally finds his father at the church where secrets are revealed. Christian grandmothers christened mixed race children behind their father’s backs, so that they would not grow up with Muslim names; the man’s father Abdi Mahmood had become Peter Watkins. Yet it is the priest that solves the cryptic, concerning answers of the Vera and the community and delivers the bad news: the recent funeral had been his father’s funeral.

The Coal Exchange is the location of the wake, where there is further interaction between the audience and the characters of Tiger Bay. They are mourning the loss the father had been nicknamed Tiger Bay: the play places him as the community hub, its royalty and family - he is the community father as well as his family. Making him a representation of what community means, his legitimate children speak of his desire to make money but was always willing to help others. Tiger Bay is the location of the community, as well as being the community. I felt there were the odd moments where the theme of community became somewhat moralistic, driving home a little too much just how important community and family is to us all and whilst we are celebrating the history of what is now Butetown, without the coal industry it is not the community it was.



The Coal Exchange entrance hall, a building with a lot of history.



Audience interaction is crucial, without it the impact of the surroundings, the scenes played out on CD is lessened. We make up the vast proportion of the ‘community’, and splitting up groups to go into the taxis is a shrewd move, creating the ‘ah there you are’ moment when reunited – again enhancing the togetherness. The dance at the end was brilliant, encouraging the audience to dance to the ‘Butetown theme’ Tiger’s favourite song. They were simple steps but for those of us who didn’t know them it was very entertaining trying to keep up and not step on your neighbours toes, laughing with them when you did, it gave an enjoyable end to the evening.

Just some of the dancing at the end!

As we passed through the different elements the enormity of the organisation needed to produce a play on this scale was evident. The crew did a fantastic job as every stage of the journey was well structured and none of the audience looked lost or confused, we were given props and instructions where appropriate - a box of the main characters keepsakes in the taxi; photo’s, newspaper, a button with cloth and pieces of metal and then the letter Abdi Mahmood left to his lost son as we entered the Coal Exchange. The audience get to keep the boarding pass and the letter, keepsakes of our own of an excellently executed play and of a shared moment in time.

The boxes given to us for the taxi ride - placed on a very large man painted on the floor covered with maps, newspaper clippings and photo's

There are many creative elements to the play as it uses certain conventions of Radio drama and filmic techniques, using original and popular music. The audience has work hard to incorporate every element into the experience, as the dialogue and background music play out of the stereo the world outside whizzes by in a split second, much like it does in a film. You have to keep up, there is no clock watching or drifting off, every second is important.

One thing I was unsure how to react to was the length of the taxi ride as several of the street scenes were seen repeatedly. I recognise that Butetown is only a small area in which to and to get to the Coal Exchange some steps needed to be retraced and the CD was also a certain length but I felt that seeing something two or even three times was unnecessary. Yet stopping each taxi and using more of the street scenes would have required far more logistics and broken up the dialogue on the CD. 

As a play it is reliant on the history of Butetown although changing the history and the location would allow the play to fit into any other town or area of Cardiff, Wales or even the world. Soul Exchange is a fantastic feat, not only logistically but creatively and as a play alone. I look forward to the next NTW production with anticipation.

                                                        

(Unprotected poster taken from website)

Unprotected

Weston Studio 8th & 9th December

Velvet Ensemble were in the WMC’s Weston Studio earlier this week with their first full production: Unprotected written by Bethan Marlow.

The play opens with our introduction to Violet (Rhian Blythe) the central character; her first monologue is a separate moment to the content of the play, as if she is asking permission and even forgiveness for what we are about to see. We see her moving into a new flat, alone and away from her ‘suffocating’ apparently religious parents and she embarks on a journey of understanding that transforms her innocence and naivety into an understanding of who she is. She moves between moments of innocence and complete manic, irrational behaviour which confuses Tom the second character as he is drawn towards her and at the same time pushed away. Whilst Tom is something of a plot device for Violet’s journey he is given motivation and we empathise with his position. For instance, in a moment of irrationality near the end, Violet threatens to jump out of a window and Tom freaks out – we are given to understand that his own torment, his initial reluctance towards Violet, comes from his past where someone else had jumped from a window.

In trying to understand who she is, Violet takes on the persona’s of stereotypes and other characters, dressing up as a sexy girl, working as a charity street vendor and the housewife baking quiche: she picks the completely wrong moment to turn up at one of Tom’s haunt’s to give him the quiche. The play deals with the issues of normality: how we as individuals see it, are afraid of what it means and also how we interpret it in others. Violet plays this game where she imagines what it is like to be other people and plays out the imaginings – “ [she wants to be everything and not her, but not knowing how] ”. There are also questions of love and how we fear that – Tom recognises that he is drawn to Violet but denies his feelings and refuses her cravings of a stable relationship by running off and appearing embarrassed around her.

It was a very bold move of Bethan’s to only include two visible characters, as the fewer characters there are the harder it is to create dramatic flow, but the content of the character’s actions provides plenty of tension and dramatic progression keeping the audience engrossed. It is a tense and very physical play with both actors running around, falling, jumping in and out of the bed and there are moments of comic genius in the dialogue that keep us intrigued. There are instances where Tom and Violet ‘speak’ to other people in the street although they are never seen and including those extra people would take away from the impact of Tom and Violet’s interaction. The exclusion of Violet’s possessive parents is explained away in her description of her parents and the “God is a bastard” line, although this is something of a stereotype and the only major one used in the play – the denouncing of a child for religious blasphemy. Yet without the stereotype it would have been more difficult to explain away their absence, thus taking away from the impact of Violet’s journey: her parents job is not to be there.

The set was a simple and effective raised square with the bare essentials of a bedroom and all of Violet’s possessions stored in cardboard boxes and it was mentioned that the bed was a ¾ bed rather than a standard double; whether this was a space issue or to force the characters to come closer together in the bed scenes I am unsure. The white of Violet’s internal space and world contrasts with the black corridor around it that represents ‘outside’ with leaves, crisp packets and empty cans litter the edges to reinforce the opposing worlds and there were specific points on the square the actors used to represent a door and a window. The opposing colours could also be seen to subtly clarify Violet’s opposing behaviour. An effective stage direction were the 'sex' scenes where the lights would black out as the characters started to undress or had moved onto the bed and were in position as if to get on with it, a clean yet brilliant way of handling a moment that is often difficult to carry through.

It is impressive that Rhian Blythe and Gareth Milton were only in rehearsals with director Sarah Bickerton for just over three weeks and the fact that they only had the locked in script for a week is even more notable, really proving that these are two brilliant performers. Although as Bethan mentioned after, Rhian played Violet in the original Never Fear Love production for the 2009 incubator project so she would have already had some insight into this very complex character. What added to the characterisation, and probably purely accidental were the bruises on Rhian's legs, I wouldnt be suprised she had collected them from the rehearsing of the rough and tumble parts of the play.

There certainly were no location issues – they could have been two individuals in any corner of any city across the country, only Rhian’s accent placed it in Wales against Gareth’s far more neutral accent. Any person watching the play, anywhere in the country would be encouraged to recognise that normal isn’t real – there are eccentricities, strange habits and unusual behaviours in everyone of us but we all must be careful that the intricate weavings we play out in life do not start to play us like a game and turn everything against us as Violet’s behaviour turns against her in Tom walking out of her life after admitting that he had loved her. If there was a decision to take it further or even on tour I would greatly encourage that decision and wish it every success.

(L-R)Bethan Marlow Sarah Bickerton and Victoria John

Congratulations to Velvet Ensemble, Sarah Bickerton and Bethan Marlow for such a great production and good luck for the next project and the future ladies, I am eager to see more.

Velvet Ensemble interview with Rachel Williams and Chelsey Gillard: Young Critics

Theatre Company Velvet Ensemble is back in the WMC with their first big production; Unprotected. This time as ‘graduates’ of its annual Incubator Project (2009) and we grabbed the chance to talk to its producer Victoria “V” John and writer Bethan Marlow during rehearsals in Cardiff, in an unexpected rehearsal space; rather than in a WMC studio V walked us to an office building around the corner where we settled into sofas out of the cold.

Velvet Ensemble:

Living in a world dominated by male writers and uninteresting female parts V was encouraged by positive, proud, can do women in American theatre: women who freely admit to being feminists. So V brought Velvet Ensemble to life as a theatre company creating productions for and about women, by women. Although they both stress that the male voice is still important - it is just an attempt to address the gender imbalance and to quote V they are not “angry, man hating, bra burning lesbians” but are certainly not afraid of that label, her attitude is that people should come see the plays and let them speak for themselves before she has to defend anything. 

We asked V to define Velvet Ensemble, was it aiming to be mainstream? Edgy? To her those words mean little: she doesn’t know the ultimate goal for the company, only that there is no ‘house style’ and she would like to produce a different work every time and that is the main reason for the absence of an Artistic Director.

The Incubator Project, Victoria?

V explained that WMC set up this initiative to nurture new talent, starting with Inc’Ling: where any type of artist; from actor to lighting designer can try out any new idea they have. From here it progresses into the Incubator project which requires a larger, more solid brief/work in progress: giving them rehearsal space and a small bursary. The work is then presented in a one night performance along with other ‘Incubator’ companies/ artists where the audience can provide feedback. For Velvet Ensemble the support provided was incredibly important especially now as they are in co-production with the WMC as part of an ‘Incubator 2’ almost, to develop Unprotected into a full production.

Bethan on Unprotected

It isn’t just the name of the show, Unprotected defines the process of evolution that plays can go through – nothing is safe. With the dates for the show around the corner we asked just how much of the original project and brief had survived and what had grown from it. Out of the original four, only one main character has survived so we only see her part of the story:  the best way to concentrate on the central idea. It still carries the same themes: questioning the word “normal” and playing with the word love and peoples fears; our relationship with love, what it is, what it makes you do and how scared we are of it and scared what it can make you do.  

Why should anyone go see Unprotected?

“The people that are involved are phenomenally gifted, are rising stars in Welsh theatre. We are expressing something new and Welsh talent should be supported in Wales”.

Cardiff and being in Wales

V currently lives in London but works between there and Cardiff, the two cities are vastly different, not just in size but in outlook and personality so we asked just what Cardiff’s allure was – away from the bright lights of London’s theatre. London is brilliant but vastly over populated: the spectrum of spectacular theatre to the downright dire is far greater: one is able to go out any night of the week to an array of locations and find a production, whereas in Cardiff’s smaller circle the spectrum is not so wide. Both are hugely passionate about Cardiff and Wales; its theatre scene is burgeoning, the support is far greater and the buzz of a fringe theatre scene has only now begun to stamp its mark outside of the conventional theatre space. They candidly admit it that the environment here is such that if the production was not done here, would not have been done at all.

It’s not a secret

“Theatre is just a job like anything else” and Bethan would be right, people see theatre as an unattainable luxury that only the gifted and privileged have access to but the case is most of us want to share what we learn – Bethan for instance does workshops in the prisons with Academi. Education is important to the VE team too – they work with Channel 4’s ‘4 talent’ and work within  schools, not  just to develop theatre skills but to also give people confidence, build self esteem and to just show that there isn’t a massive gap between the theatre and an audience. Both V and Bethan stressed that they want “real” people to come to their productions, open minded and willing to be as involved in the performance as the actors.  

So what is next? 

We didn’t get much out of V on this one, “the future is bright and varied” she said cryptically at the end. Although she is very excited about the next piece which will hopefully be a children’s show and she is looking at a stack of plays at the moment, all that is needed is the time and space to develop ideas and then the money to do it.

To find out more go to http://www.velvetensemble.co.uk/

Unprotected is on at the WMC 8^TH and 9^th December,

Unprotected poster taken from website



Measure for Measure

Black, White and those murky shades of grey

“Like for like, Measure for Measure”

Luxury and Opulence, all in red

Shakespeare’s measure for measure can be seen as a social commentary of 1604 dealing with issues within humanity. Yet for that, the very essence of play still resonates in modern society, and the focus in this production is the dealings with personal and public morality and sexuality to the politics of power: how little the Duke does to stay in power and then when Angelo has power his changes create his downfall. The original play deals with those topics but as mercy, justice, truth and the bond each has with pride and humility: asking where along the path do you fall and if any stance that you take is right. The difference is simply that today the shades of grey take precedence instead of a 16^th century clear cut black and white. Looking at the history and the evidence Measure for Measure provides, social and religious unrest exists now as it did then, just on a far larger scale, as does political scheming. It all prompts the question: how much could we learn if we looked at the lessons history gives us?

Walking into the theatre space you are greeted by opulence and luxury: everything in red from velvet drapes to satin seat cushions and red carpet. The ‘haze’ used during the production added to the overall atmosphere, particularly as ‘opium haze’ and such things were common place in the whore house and ‘parlours’ of the Medieval world.  As much as it created an extra element of authenticity I wasn’t keen on the haze: it came in waves, often overpowering: I felt that a lesser dose would have been better but at least they warned us before we went into the production. Ascending the stair’s the room opens out before you, white marble column’s rising to the roof, displaying the age and grandeur of the building – the Provincial being a bank in earlier times. The audience is seated in tiers around the central stage looking down on the performers. The production is full of sensuality and grace, the costume’s are revealing, the casts movements and poses are sexually inviting, there is dancing at certain points as the Saxophone player fills the room with this bluesy, sensual music.

With this adaptation of the play the number of cast does not measure up to the number of characters taking part, nor to Shakespeare's orginal much longer cast list. Pared right down, five of the eight performers have two parts to play and to differentiate between each one subtle costume changes and clear accent differences occur: Lord Angelo becomes Mistress Overdone by draping sparkly material over the arms - much like a lady holds out the ends of her skirt – and the crisp upper class accent melts in to the lilting musical welsh accent. All the actors use the variation between the crisp upper class and the Welsh accent to differentiate their characters; of course some have stronger Welsh accents than others. In the limited space that the Provincial provides there was little if no space to change costumes behind the scenes, so a character’s representation had to be far more subtle, this is where accents play a great part and also to give actors character’s with opposing gender’s and personalities: Eiry Tomas playing the gentle Julietta and the bawdy Lucio. Productions that employ this technique can become difficult to follow but with the techniques used, my advice is to bear with it and the further you are drawn into the play the quicker it snaps into place.

As one of Shakespeare’s slightly less well known plays, unlike the populist Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet or Macbeth it is a play of multiple faces with brilliant comedy and heart wrenching tragedy, it is as if the play has never made up its mind whether to side with the bawdy sexual humour or to dive into the tragedy. Yet in doing that it enthrals you even more: endearing the sinful characters and the audience dislikes the ‘pure’ character – introducing shades of grey into Angelo’s white and the Duke’s black portrait.

Is the path to hell paved with good intentions?


Lord Angelo accepts the Duke's handing over of power

Leaving his city in the hands of piously minded powerful Angelo, the Duke goes into hiding as a Friar (there are two in the original play, one a proper friar, the other the Duke), and he observes Angelo bringing back the old laws: banning sex and brothels. As part of his intentions to clean up the city Angelo condemns a man to death (Claudio) as Claudio has made Julietta, his lover, pregnant.

Yet Angelo’s purity is questioned when Isabella appears, she is the innocent novice begging for her brother’s life, Angelo is tempted by Isabella – her purity and innocence, and he suggests that Claudio’s life could be saved if she will sleep with him. Also when the wrongs he has done Mariana are revealed by the Duke as Friar.  When the Duke is finally discovered as the Friar he has final judgement, forcing Angelo to marry Marianna as he should have many years ago and giving Isabella the right to demand Angelo’s life for Claudio’s life:

Duke Vincentio:

“...but as he adjudged your brother,--
Being criminal, in double violation
Of sacred chastity and of promise-breach
Thereon dependent, for your brother's life,--
The very mercy of the law cries out
Most audible, even from his proper tongue,
'An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!'
Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure;
Like doth quit like, and MEASURE still FOR MEASURE...”

Claudio has not died – a likeness of him has gone in his place, but only the Duke knows this, even so Isabella does not bow to pressure to have Angelo’s life forfeit and is rewarded by the appearance of her brother. What is truly a piece of political scheming is the Duke’s request to marry Isabella at the end, his scheming and plotting as the Friar and his political clout as the Duke has cleared the path for him to do this.

The production stays true to Shakespeare’ s language – I am encouraged when I find they have kept the language as true as possible, translating it into the truly modern English takes away from what Shakespeare is meant to be, the history and the gift it is to the literary cannon. I accept that there will always be interpretations, they are a good way of exploring old themes in new ways and are often good productions – maybe I’m just a sucker for tradition, even if I still haven’t made my way through all of Shakespeare’s plays quite yet. I’ll get there one day.

I bumped into an old lecturer at the play; he is the dramaturge for the production (DJ Britton) which was an excellent surprise: it is nice to see people I know at productions, I feel like I am doing the right thing and getting on with it.  

This production has been a fantastic version of Measure for Measure; everything has been done well and even with the revamps to fit an eight member cast and the focus on the modernity of the issues. The production is on until 5^th December at the Provincial by Sherman Cymru.

The Wizard, the Goat and the Man Who Won the War

A tale of one man, or a tale of three?

A one off and premiere performance at the Dylan Thomas Festival

Writer/ Director: DJ Britton

Featuring: Richard Elfyn

 David Lloyd George was a man of great talents and great flaws, and in leading a very public life the press named him accordingly.

As the ‘Welsh Wizard’ for his oratory skills, the peoples champion – introducing pensions, national insurance and courage to take the country through its darkest hours in WW1.

‘The Goat’ for all his chapel upbringing he was a compulsive flirt and womanizer, having a long term mistress (later his second wife).

‘The Man Who won the War’: as named in 1918 in the tabloid press.

He started life as a lower class, chapel going Welsh boy from Criccieth who became Chancellor, Minister of War and later the Prime Minister. A champion of the Welsh and British cause, Lloyd George is one of the most documented men in history: from his own forays as a journalist, traveller, his autobiography, the press coverage of his life whilst alive, the countless accounts written of him by friends, family and historians and the numerous performances about him. All this information is a gift for a writer as, more often than not, research on a subject is scarce and here the writer David Britton – in his own words - takes the opportunity to pick “what’s interesting dramatically in his life”, using fact to inform an intricately woven fiction.

A one man play, it opens with Lloyd George sat on a bench in the French resort of Antibes covered in a Union Flag towel.  For the next hour we keep Lloyd George company during his waiting game for the young ‘Chanel girl’ Juliette even though it is supposed to be his 50^th wedding anniversary with Margaret. He talks about events and people in his life; his daughter Mair who died at 17, Frances his mistress and growing up as a child in Criccieth. It soon becomes evident that his life is one large juggling act: between his wife and mistress; his Welsh identity and British image and his role as the people’s protector with his ever increasing wealth. The French cloth makers have made him the Union towel but “oh for a draig goch” (Welsh dragon) he cries at one point. The play is a mix of three languages with the English speech broken up by flashes of Welsh and French and whilst many in the audience may not understand the French or Welsh it adds to the atmosphere and the depth of the character before us. He also breaks into song, Myfanwy being one: singing is a huge part of Welsh culture, more so then with the prevalence of Christian hymns one of his speeches in Wales during the war centres around singing, asking why should we not sing? I’d pick a link on you tube for Myfanwy but there are a lot of them and some are pretty awful - unfortunately I don’t have the technology to extract my decent recording from its vinyl record.  One theme running through the play is the legend of King Arthur and his Knights – he talks to his Uncle Lloyd as a child about the legends, to his daughter Mair about believing in the legends and compares his political partnership with Churchill to King Arthur and Lancelot – Lloyd George as Arthur and Churchill as Lancelot.

Richard Elfyn had the difficult task of holding the performance together without the support of fellow cast members and the end result is brilliant: for a one off premiere performance it was carried off with fantastic flair and if any words or lines were missed out, I couldn’t tell you. Lloyd George as a character animates Margaret, Frances and Mair: Richard pulls it off effortlessly – changing voices for each character. In all humorousness he continued the animation in the question and answer session after, imitating David (who is Australian) rather well.  His costume was fantastic – almost the image of the man he is portraying, down to the cream suit, pocket watch and slightly long hair.



David Lloyd George 1863-1945



I was utterly sympathetic to the play only being an hour long, firstly for Richard Elfyn’s sake coping with all those lines and that single character productions carry the danger of floundering on the rocks of dramatic tension and momentum. Yet this play, with its carefully crafted devices and props works well. Giving Lloyd George a past and a present allows tension to shift and create drama: moving between his memories and the expectations he carries for the present/future. Winston Churchill and his aides are also at Antibes: Lloyd George is unable to decide who he should approach should Churchill’s men come by or go to his latest ‘flirt’ Juliette when she appears and the knowledge that Margaret expects him back or may even appear at any point. It ends with neither; he is the butt of a joke between Juliette and friends and is ignored by Churchill’s men so returns to the hotel and to Margaret.

I love going to the Dylan Thomas Centre for events and the yearly Dylan Thomas Festival – this is the third year running I have attended at least one event and The Wizard, the Goat and the Man Who Won the War was a closing event for the festival. It is a brilliant place with a staff always willing to help and it would be a disappointment to see anything happen to it – if the rumours DJ Britton mentioned about it going or anything like that are true - even if I always complain there’s no room to move in the theatre’s seats, which there isn’t but I’d rather suffer a discomfort than see a vital piece of the Swansea arts scene disappear.  It has always been an opportunity to catch up with people I no longer see on a daily basis; lecturer’s and friends from the Swansea MA in Creative Writing – often it results in fresh writing tips, welcome encouragement and interesting titbits of information on new reading material.  Talking to David after I explained I was now a young critic and he revealed that being a premiere performance there were no ‘professional’ critics - simply not to put Richard off and also they are unsure as to what is the official next step. For that I am glad I didn’t catch him before hand, even if I am still only finding my feet.

Listening to David and Richard discuss the play after was interesting, as they revealed the organic process by which the play developed – David writing a few pages at a time, Richard reading them and David writing the next few depending on how Richard read each piece. Also that finding out about Lloyd George in Antibes had been a dramatic gift to good to turn down. They spoke about staying away from the ‘historical overview’ that piece’s like this can become and create “our Lloyd George” a fictional creation of their own based on the facts – after all Juliette is an invention.  The piece was excellent and I wish David and Richard all the best in taking it on tour next year, and would see it again just to find out what tweaks or sweeping changes they decide to make. I think that whatever they decide will only make it better.

KONTAKT 3

Kontakt 3

 Secrets? Truths?  and Disclosing them to a stranger

Childhood

Forgiveness

Tolerance

Crazy Things

Ghosts?

Like ghosts stepping out of the mists of time - instead it is the youth theatre cast approaching our tables from within the inner chapel and altar of St John the Baptist Church. But in the dark with the lighting set just right? It felt eerie yet I was relaxing into my seat. The haunting Russian folk /string music playing enforced that feeling actually enhancing the feeling of stillness that silence would normally bring in a church.

Kontakt 3 is not your average theatre production: pushing the boundaries of theatre as we know it: there no audience separation and you are right there in the thick of it. Singled out, one per table the ‘audience’ await the arrival of the cast - you are left alone with the music and your thoughts unable to converse with friends, family or even swap comments  with a stranger.  In the blurb handed to participants on leaving Philip Mackenzie (Director) asks the very pertinent question of “How often does an adult sit across the table from a 14 year old and have a meaningful interaction or conversation?” and unfortunately today the answer is likely to be rarely; if ever. Not wanting to be clichéd but Kontakt does what it says on the tin, but it explores how we communicate in an unconventional manner:                                    

All to provoke some level of response? Yes, definately.

• The first point of contact between people is eye contact. To demonstrate this, a cast member come and sit opposite you, staring/watching you in silence before moving on and a second does the same.
• Second is conversation: a third person comes and sits with you striking up conversation. Mine, a friendly young gentleman who wasn’t that much younger than me, asked me to tell him about myself and it turns out we had interests in common. Too be honest being of a similar age I wasn’t too surprised yet if an older adult was in my seat I doubt they would expect to have similar interests.
• The third step in this process was a set of cards each having a topic or phrase to initiate specific conversation, whilst this is a somewhat forced way of interacting it opens doors for individuals to open up to a stranger or connect over similar situations. I turned over 4 cards, the words meaning quite different things to me. Here she held my hand in silence before the cards, hiding her face – creating a sense of security before the questions were asked.
• In the fourth exploration of communication a girl sat opposite me with pen and paper and we communicated through art, drawing different things on the paper. The end result looked a bit like a child’s drawing of home with a house, sunshine, tree’s and people there were also the mountains of Wales as ‘home’. The music then changed to an Abba classic and everyone was coaxed up to dance: was this the breaking down of barriers now we had communicated? As many people find getting up and dancing difficult, lots of cider is usually required in my case. 
  

 Speak in silence, in ink.

   Can you dance? Show me...

• Last but not least was the ‘interrogation’ as the youngest of my questioners called it – wearing a Poirot moustache of all things, it was a series of probing questions that I had to answer although he was a bit too friendly and encouraging to be Poirot and I struggled not to laugh at the comedy value.

Throughout this process those of the cast who stood behind the chair opposite completed a set choreography that was nothing less than the Macarena in slow motion - though that it was the Macarena didn’t click until after when talking with the other young critics. I was rather unsure as to the point of this choreography initially it did not seem to have a purpose yet now thinking on it each movement was a representation of the open and closed nature of communication: showing open empty hands, hidden palms, hiding faces and arms wide open above heads. Not knowing what to expect at the start I was a little put out by the staring at first, didn’t know where to look and questions like why is she staring? What are they doing? Were running through my head: until I focused and simply stared back. One thing that did make me giggle as well as pause for thought was that on two occasions everyone sat down and the chair opposite me was empty – no one came to fill it for a moment – in those seconds I felt the echoed moments of loneliness I experienced as a young adult and also laughing at being the last one left as usual.

The actors and actresses where certainly brave to keep a straight face complete the piece’s and listen to strangers open up. I really enjoyed the experience and although very different, it was completely worthwhile. If you are given the opportunity to see a production like this go, though expect to divulge your inner most truths and wants and don’t expect to be judged: some are willing to divulge their own feelings and opinions to you to. Think of it as the turn of a priest to confess to the sinner who has been confessing, apt for a church I think.  Kontakt is on for a further day (Sat 6^th November).

Kontakt 3 is at St John the Baptist Church in Canton until 6th November 2010

performed by Sherman Cymry Youth Theatre

Photos by Andy Hammer

Bay Lit Festival Shock of the New

Over the weekend I scouted out the Bay Lit Festival - something I have been looking forward to since I came across it last year. It is a literary festival held over two weeks and it’s a chance for the authors, artists and publishers of Wales to showcase their talent on home soil and discuss topics central to welsh literature. Events take place across the modern, popular environment of Cardiff Bay: a centre of artistic and creative events and the home of the Wales Millennium Centre.  The festival ran from 25th - 30th October.

Of the events I attended, Shock of the New proves an apt title for this Bay Lit Festival and not simply because the titles launched are new. Those new titles I was tempted with are a mix of innovation, challenge and certainly unusual in some cases, they should provide an exciting year for Welsh literature and entertainment for the reader. Listen, and for all the newness that abounds in these titles, the past gets a nod: after all there is no future without a past.

Thurs 28: New Stories from the Mabinogion launch by Seren



Owen Shears, Niall Griffiths, Gwyneth Lewis &

Russell Celyn Jones



Outside of Wales and even to some Welsh the Mabinogion is an unknown so firstly: the book is 11 stories from early British history from the Red book of Hergest and the White book of Rhyderch but brought to prominence as the Mabinogion in the 1800’s by Lady Charlotte Guest. The stories give us the ancient perspective of the Arthurian tales; Celtic mythology and the magical belief’s of the British people. For the modern reader the Mabinogion can be a difficult read: the language is dry, its prose frustrating and it often leaves moments important to the narrative that are ripe for emotion as bare facts. Although for all its anarchic qualities it carries a freedom – there are no rules binding it to genre, form or style: the

myth chosen by Gwyneth Lewis has Blodeuwydd as a woman created from flowers then turned into

an owl as punishment, few writers could put that together even as Sci-fi or magic realism.

Change and tradition were the buzz words at the launch; difficult words to pair up but with a reworking of Mabinogion up for discussion they are central themes. How much danger do retellings carry? Too much change and the essence can be lost, not enough is seen as going over old ground. Seren’s editor Penny Thomas explained the writers were invited to choose a myth, given a deadline and a word count then given free reign – even with full creative control each chosen myth is at the centre of the novellas, this was evident from the readings given by the authors. Owen Shear’s in White Ravens borrows

pieces of his myth Branwen’s message too her brother via bird as one example. As a Liverpudlian with Welsh and Irish heritage Niall Griffiths spoke of it as an opportunity to “reassess and rewrite a part of his own history”. Taping into the myth’s narratives unearths the roots of the Welsh and Celtic culture’s; carrying on our storytelling tradition.

We are as bad now as we were then: something of a generalist claim I agree but there is a

parallel between the now of the Mabinogion stories and the here and now: a great deal of

conflict existed then the only difference is that conflict now exists on a far more global stage. To

the British chieftains of the time the Irish and greedy neighbouring kings were the biggest

threats. History should teach us the lessons we need to change but Prince’s still head off to war

to defend their people and from already leafing through the pages both The Ninth Wave and

the Dreams of Max and Ronnie promise to pull in that parallel: from observing the state of the nation

to setting it in an almost plausible future.

As a lover of ancient literature I have read the Mabinogion and even though it is a struggle to read it is rewarding. My advice is to just tackle each story one at a time and at your own pace and you will

discover the wonders of magic and myth. As something of a devourer of all things Welsh I am

certainly looking forward to reading my freshly purchased copies and hope to be as enthralled as I

was last night.

Saturday 30 (Morning): Getting Up Launch

Breakfast and Books: a brilliant idea, but at 10am on a Saturday morning? My first thought was adding a bed would be perfect but I doubt many people would  appreciate a) sharing a bed with strangers in a public place, b) going to someone’s house for the event or c) people turning up to a public event in pyjamas no matter how comfortable they were. Though if memory serves, I could name certain individuals who have actually turned up to events or gone shopping in their PJ’s and called it ‘self expression’: 9am lecture’s in my slippers is as far as I’ll ever go. With the early morning moan over
and tucking into tea, scrumptious looking pastries, fruit and yogurt (I was good I chose the healthy
fruit and yogurt option) I settled into literary and writerly conversation about the Rhys Davies short
story competition – Getting Up the collection of the winning and runner up short stories - with a lovely lady who I’d met whilst getting confused trying to find the location within the Wales Millennium Centre.  It was a tad disappointing to see so few of the runner’s up included in the book attending – only one was there.



Rhys Davies Short Story Competition Winner Sian Preece



Getting up is certainly an innovative piece:  written from a young graffiti artist’s point of view – Sian, as the discussion progressed, talked about art as a form of communication across cultures and time: her own experience with a museum guide whose first language was not English where they ended up communicating via images and the boy in her story falls into a cave coming across cave drawings. Cave drawings being a rare access to a past we know very little about.  Graffiti is much like the short story: short, succinct and often short lived but altogether powerful with an immediate impression. Short stories are slowly gaining more ground in literary circles, but as a form still have to justify their existence in the market far more than the novel even though examining history proves the form is far older – for example the Mabinogion is in a sense made up of ‘short stories’ that came from the oral traditions. They are gaining more prevalence via the Radio: BBC Radio 4 has the 15 minute afternoon reading slot, particularly suited to radio in their paired down, very visual nature where the reader/listener can fill in their own images and imagination.

Saturday 30 (Afternoon): Bright Young Things



Parthian Editor Lucy Llewellyn & author's Suzie Wilde and Tyler Keevil



A solid walk later I entered the cosy Havannah Bar and was greeted by a friendly, young crowd gathered near the bar awaiting the next event. I have been intrigued by the Bright Young Things and their titles – they blog regularly, or at least try to as author Tyler Keevil admits, and are debut writers that together create a unique support network for each other: a rare thing indeed for the writer. Yet their books seem to come from very different places, a small nugget garnered from the readings given by Suzie Wilde and Tyler Keevil who are in attendance at the event with the Parthian editor Lucy Llewellyn. I appreciated the inclusion of the missing author’s Wil Gritten and James Smythe: giving an appreciation of all the books together particularly as they are being marketed as a group.

One thing that stood out against the other launches was the encouragement of audience participation: ‘quiz’ sheets were handed out at the start and we were encouraged to listen carefully and fill in the sheet as there would be prizes for the winner. This is my meagre attempt:

I have left it as I started it (honestly) – my multi-tasking skills have been left wanting between the listening, taking notes and filling in quiz sheets although it was a nice gesture and certainly a good incentive tool to engage with the panel. Goodies were also given out at the end for those who had questions.

One comment made by the audience that there is a common theme running through the books: there is a macabre quality to all the books as each deal’s with darkness and death; yet the writers are all young.  It was certainly evident in the readings as Suzie’s character Amy loses her boyfriend and Tyler’s Razor loses his friend Chris although I will certainly reserve judgement and eagerly devour the books at a near point in the future.

Whilst I have thoroughly enjoyed my weekend of literary events and I certainly wish I could have attended more, one thing that has disappointed me is the timing: the festival clashes with the start of Swansea’s Dylan Thomas Festival. It is an even smaller festival but one just as good and seems to carry more worldly renown and reach. Bay Lit is very much a writer/author and literary orientated event and it would be interesting to see collaboration between Academi and other artistic forms to create a bigger, more modern bilingual festival. The bilingual nature adopted by Academi is fantastic: it encourages the inclusion of all Welsh people: providing a local and international outlook, whereas the yearly Eisteddfod is still very much a Welsh language led programme and difficult to navigate by those of us struggling with the Welsh language. The location is a good one: Cardiff Bay has good parking facilities as well as the numerous places to eat before and after even if the events are spread out – the walk between the Millennium Centre and Havannah Bar felt a bit long after having to search for it. There are maps of the Bay posted on various walls but a map on the website to pin point all the places would have been good.  I do have high expectations for next year, and I am curious to see the theme as Shock of the New has been inspiring and thought provoking. I hope that it has chance to grow and opportunities arise for expansion or collaboration.