LURKING TRUTH/GWIR SY’N LLECHU present
LOVEFURIES: written and directed by
David Ian Rabey
‘A writer who combines a ruthlessly exploring intellect with a superb, at times shocking, dramatic instinct … his characters are as memorable as those in early O’Casey’ – Brendan Kennelly
‘fierce, muscular texts in the spirit of Artaud- - Iain Sinclair
IRISH PREMIERE of a double bill performance pieces which explodes national and personal pressures to keep silent. The first play, THE CONTRACTING SEA, explores the surprising and shocking resurgences of life that break through grief. A woman confronts her loss, loses her mind, and finds another. Performed by Antoinette Walsh (star of Howard Barker’s own production of The Twelfth Battle of Isonzo) and featuring original
music by top Welsh jazz and theatre composer Paula Gardiner.
Antoinette Walsh is breathtaking! This woman with these words given her by David Ian Rabey has the power of the sea … Paula Gardiner’s electrifying double bass is an elemental music for a play about sea and fire – a music that explores the roots of music itself.
Dic Edwards, Theatre in Wales website review
In the first play of Lovefuries, titled The Contracting Sea, the fiancée of a just-shipwrecked sailor splits schizophrenically into two characters: the distraught Elisheba and Morgana, siren-like sexy personification of the seductive and homicidal sea, which, we find, “contracts” in two senses of the word. This takes place on a seaside promontory in the actress’s native Ireland, but the time setting is
unidentifiable … mesmerisingly acted. Rebecca Nesvet, Theatre in Wales website review
The second play, THE HANGING JUDGE, explores from the inside an occurrence of sexual abuse in a contemporary Welsh context, and how one survivor finds the courage to discover defiance. Performed by Roger Owen. (Contains strong language and sexual references. Recommended for audiences 15+).
As in the first play, the character has just been traumatised by a lover’s death. By deconstructing a Lewis Carroll rhyme, he figuratively resurrects the ghost of his horrid mother and the men whose abuse of her child she enabled. If this sounds fatalist and whingeing, it’s not. The title involves a really neat prismatic double-entendre, which I can’t explain without giving away the big secrets. The character’s struggle is fierce, suspenseful, and genuinely surprising in its outcome.
- Rebecca Nesvet, Theatre in Wales website review
The Hanging Judge, both the play and its execution (apt, that word) are a gem of concise, meaningful new drama which deserves to be seen more widely as an illustration of the sort of theatre Wales is capable of producing - Gill Ogden, Performing Arts Officer, Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Tue 21 – Sat 25 Sept / 8.30pm / 145 mins incl interval / Ss Michael & John Downstairs. Matinee: Sun 26 Sept. 2.00pm.
Tickets: Concession €10 Full Price €12
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