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CLASSIC WESKER PLAY CELEBRATES
50th BIRTHDAY OF GWENT YOUNG PEOPLE’s THEATRE
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Thurs 30 November – Sat 2 December,
Melville Theatre, Abergavenny
Monday 4 December
Weston Studio, Wales Millennium Centre
Fifty years of Gwent Young People’s Theatre will be celebrated with a new production of The Wedding Feast by Arnold Wesker.
This dark and chilling comedy features a factory owner who sees himself as being one of the workers and is loosely based on a short story by Dostoevsky called An Unpleasant Predicament.
It is directed by Chris Durnall who has led members of Gwent Young People’s Theatre in dramas of classic Pinter and Orton plays and has a reputation for creating strange atmospheres with minimal productions.
The Wedding Feast features Louis Litvanov, a shoe manufacturer, who finds himself outside a house from where he can hear the celebration sounds of a marriage. He recognises the voices and realises it is the wedding of one of his employees.
Litvanov persuades himself that, were he to join the wedding guests, he would be warmly greeted and admired for calling in to wish them well. He is indeed persuaded to stay as an honoured guest but he slowly becomes drunk with them and the wedding party ends in disaster.
First premiered in Stockholm in 1974, The Wedding Feast received its British premiere with a greatly revised script in 1977 under the directorship of John Harrison and Michael Attenborough.
It underwent further changes at the Birmingham Rep where it was directed by Peter Farago and during rehearsal at the University of Denison in Ohio directed by the author, further revisions were made which are incorporated in the current production.
Arnold Wesker is considered one of the key figures in 20th Century drama. He is a prolific writer and is the author of 42 plays, 4 volumes of short stories, 2 volumes of essays, a book on journalism, a children's book, extensive journalism, poetry and other assorted writings. His plays have been translated into 17 languages, and performed worldwide. 2002 celebrated his 70th birthday and his 45th year as a playwright. He was knighted earlier this year.
Sir Arnold kindly offered one of his plays to be produced as part of the anniversary year of Gwent Young People’s Theatre which was established in 1956 by drama adviser Melville Thomas. It has provided opportunities for thousands of young people to experience a variety of theatre activities and productions under the direction of professional theatre practitioners and has won acclaim for recent productions of Lark Rise, Son of Man, Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Gilgamesh.
The Wedding Feast can be seen at the Melville Theatre in the Drama Centre, PenyPound, Abergavenny at 7.30pm on Thursday, 30 November, Friday 1 December and Saturday 2 December. Tickets from the Borough Theatre 01873 850805
On Monday 4 December it will be presented at the Weston Studio in Wales Millennium Centre at 8pm. For tickets tel 08700 40 2000.
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Tuesday, November 21, 2006 |
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