| Audience on Its Feet in Applause & Cheering |
Operation Julie |
| Operation Julie- Theatr na nÓg & Aberystwyth Arts Centre , Aberystwyth Arts Centre , August 4, 2022 |
There is an alchemy to performance. At 7:15 the noise to be heard in the foyer of Theatr y Werin is full and expectant. The women and men who have gathered for this first performance have an inkling of what they have come to see and hear. Separated by a few walls the company members- in varying degrees of tautness- know what they have to offer. They may have hope, but they have no knowledge, of how it will be felt. Two and a half hours later intention has become action in word, song, music; expectation has become experience. At 10:00 a final word is spoken on the stage. The audience rises to stand in acclaim, to applaud and to cheer. The words of Peter Brook, below 28th, are a half-century old but they are good ones. From "the Empty Space" he wrote: "...eyes and focus and desires and enjoyment and concentration ...representation no longer separates actor and audience, show and public: it envelops them: what is present for one is present for the other." An audience knows what it is doing. If it stands in a collective expression of uninhibited joy it is a response that happens for a reason. The company has made it happen. But three elements are needed to make it happen, to be at work in fusion. The first is the material itself. Over its thirty-eight years Theatr na nÓg has cast its theatrical light on places of the national history. The tragedy of the Arandora Star was taken to many young audiences. "You Should Ask Wallace"- the life and accomplishment of Alfred Russel Wallace- was seen across Wales, in Edinburgh and travelled to Indonesia. “It’s a brilliant story,” says Geinor Styles simply of the 1970's occurrences when Wales seized the newspaper headlines. It was a time when swathes of rural Powys and inland Ceredigion lacked connection to mains water or electricity. But it was home to a chemist of innovatory brilliance. Richard Kemp's chemistry reached unheard-of purity levels and was the source of over half the world supply of LSD. The second element is form. Geinor Styles is author of the script which interweaves three stories. The pursuers, operating from Aberystwyth police station, are Phylip Harries' PC Evans, Kieran Bailey's Richie Parry and Steve Simmonds' Dick Lee. The makers, travelling between a mansion in Carno and a tumble-down small-holding, are Joseph Tweedale's Richard Kemp and Georgina White's Christine Bott. The third strand is centred on the New Inn in Llanddewi Brefi. Caitlin Lavagna dispenses the pints to Daniel Carter-Hope's Buzz and Steffan Rizzi's Alston “Smiles” Hughes. An enigmatic American in black with acoustic guitar, Sion Russel Jones' Gerry, is there without explanation to sing a Robert Johnson blues classic. Gerry's last exit makes for a great no-spoiler joke. The writing has a generous Ealing-esque flavour to it. Wil Bach, Phylip Harries again, is a Cardi taking pains to avoid paying for drinks. Lee, the copper from England, gives the place-names of Wales some glorious manglings. Christine Bott, the doctor back in the Teifi valley from a home birth in Cwrtnewydd, spots curlews through her binoculars. She rhapsodises on the region's beauty to Caitlin Lavagna's Meg who just does not get it. (There is truth here. From somewhere the Government asserted population growth, the census revealing the truth of the largest population decline of anywhere in the last decade.) Lastly, an audience responds to what unfolds before its collective eyes and ears. Carl Davies' set has a giant tree to frame the performance space. The tree with its lifespan to out-last a human life stands for the eternity of nature. The nature motif is repeated in Nick Bache's lighting which turns the substantial stage space into a pattern of flowers in tie-dye t-shirt colours. Greg Palmer has been a previous musical director for Theatr na nÓg on "Eye of the Storm." The musical texture- sound design by Mike Beer- includes Georgina White on bassoon. She takes a haunting vocal lead for "I Talk to the Wind." Steve Simmonds is unleashed, both guitar and body, for a full Stick-It-to-the-Man performance of Budgie's "Breadfan." Audiences like strong ensembles. The nine actors juggle seventeen characters, swapping down-stage acting for up-stage music-making. The action moves into moments to startle. A prize-winning goat at an Aberystwyth show is important to the story. Local place-names are regular. A high-speed pub-crawl - New Inn, Ram, Railway, Drovers- is easily traceable to Cardi watchers. In a nod to Sarn Helen Sion Russell Jones gets a second role of no-spoiler surreal comedy. Comedy cannot work through levity alone. It too needs pain. The emotional heart of the story is Richard Kemp. In explanation to the police he says he is in Tregaron to get back to the garden, a phrase of debt to Joni Mitchell. A speech he delivers near the close is taken from a manifesto that he wrote. Its only place of publication was in the Cambrian News. Of the earth he wrote "we are living on its capital, not on its income. Temperatures will soar." Joseph Tweedale speaks words written forty-four years ago. The company was in rehearsal 19th July in temperatures that were without precedent. In the pub Smiles and Buzz sing that they are stardust, they are golden. The band, ranging from trio to full nine, performs music from Donovan, the Moody Blues, Man, Hawkwind, Budgie, Caravan, Barclay James Harvest, King Crimson. Alvin Lee has featured in split-screen triplicate the night before with the Arts Centre's screening of "Woodstock". A Ten Years After song is sung at the opening and reprised. Its chorus mingles hope and resignation: "I'd love to change the world - but I don't know what to do. So I'll leave it up to you." It takes a team of talents to make an event like "Operation Julie." Some names are familiar and some are new. Llinos Daniel has stepped off-stage to take up a new role as trainee director. Sebastian Harker, a production career in mind, is production assistant. The stage management operation is considerable with a rich use of props and location changes. The team is all young. Carys-Haf Williams is stage manager. Emma Gonzalez and Bláithìn McReynolds are assistants. The costume design is intricate with hippie smocks, headbands, big-flared trousers, The costume team are Llinos Griffiths Gough, Juliette Georges and Karen Evans. With its impish relish for human paradox- folly and idealism in equal measure- its layered narrative, its subversive humour, its adoring musical tribute to the prog-rock pioneers of an era "Operation Julie" is the blast of summer performance exhilaration that theatre in Wales needs and its audiences deserve. This first night of "Operation Julie" explodes but not without one note of poignancy to it. Covid-19 remains, even if in most cases it is unpleasant but not hazardous. Geinor Styles' contribution to the theatre of Wales has been long and has been deep. Theatre is the art of human co-presence. On this night the director-creator is in forced self-isolation. "Operation Julie" is to be seen via a screen. "Operation Julie" continues at Aberystwyth to August 13th, plays at Theatr Brycheiniog August 24th -26th, and The Lyric Carmarthen in August 31st – September 2nd. Producers and funders from Cardiff should be present in Brecon and and take note. |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
This review has been read 1135 times There are 1 other reviews of productions with this title in our database:
|
