| WALES INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF THEATRE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE |
Arad Goch |
| Vaarious companies- Agor Drysau - Opening Doors 2008 , Various venues in Aberystwyth from March 11th to 15th , March 19, 2008 |
I managed an overnight visit to Agor Drysau last week. I wasn’t there long enough to get a full flavour of what was on offer, I missed out particularly on theatre for the very young, but I did see three very different productions in three different locations.The first was Theatr Iolo’s Lenny, a poetic realisation of a bullied small boy’s desperate longings to be as hard as the nails he swallows. It would have been interesting to see this with some of its target audience. I found the script a little uncertain; there were times when it felt like a spoken adult text rather than the thoughts of a frightened small boy. That could be to do with it being a translation from French Canadian and thus from very different cultural values. It would be good to know if any of that bothers the schoolchildren for whom it’s intended. Outweighing the moments of awkwardness though were the times when the vividness of the imagery made it powerful and moving. That was particularly so of Lenny’s realisation that his big, strong brother has a tiny, frightened persona cowering inside him. Prowling around the circular dirty white floor covering, which evoked an urban, industrial wasteland, and slipping from character to character in an instant, solo performer Kevin Lewis gripped the attention throughout. There was a brilliant sound design too with startling moments when paper bags seemed to be talking. That was late night in Arad Goch’s headquarters in town. The next morning saw crowds of noisy schoolchildren disgorging from buses at Aberystwyth Arts Centre and pouring excitedly into the theatre. So how was an hour of dance, movement and live music going to be received by these chattering hoards? Echoa by French company Arcosm was one of the finest pieces of physical theatre I’ve ever seen and its target audience clearly agreed with me. Their attention was focussed on the stage throughout and not a sound was to be heard from them; except that is for the loud laughter that erupted at the many moments of exquisite, dead-pan humour. It’s almost impossible to convey just how extraordinary this show was. There were two dancers, one male and one female. There were two percussionists, both male. There were drums, xylophones and metal scaffolding subdivided into room-like spaces. Then there were the other percussion instruments, the floor, the scaffolding, the performers’ bodies, the performers’ vocal sounds and, most amazingly, the air. It was a little like watching very sophisticated playground behaviour with a gamelin orchestra in residence. It was awe-inspiring, beautiful, jaw-droppingly energetic, done with meticulous precision and very, very funny. Utterly fantastic. And so to a school hall and Hamlet; but it was no ordinary Hamlet. This version, by the Danish company Det Lille Turn_teater, was 75 minutes long and performed in English by two actors and two double bass players. Surprisingly effective it was too. Somehow the story was all there with the poetry and emotions of the words being provided by the voices of the double basses. They also became coffins, the ghost and, most memorably, they perform the play within the play. The two personable actors slip easily from character to character, no matter what sex they may be, sometimes even conversing with themselves, and they convincingly evoke the multiple deaths of the climax. It was also played with two short intervals during which they have the audience on its feet doing loosening-up exercises. The teenagers seemed genuinely gripped by the production which was full of energy, wit, imagination and, yes, poetry. There were other shows I wish I could have seen. I got a strong sense of a very good festival giving a wider showcase for the often neglected field of theatre for young people. |
Reviewed by: Victor Hallett |
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