| A very fine piece of ensemble work |
At National Theatre Wales |
| National Theatre Wales- the Dark Philosophers , Riverfront Newport , November 13, 2010 |
“The first and last stories in this volume are each delivered by a solitary narrator, but Gwyn soon dropped that device. He was at his best in the first person plural, the ‘we’ which we first encounter in the second of these stories, ‘The Dark Philosophers’, and which later became one of his trademarks. It underlined the fact that he was not simply describing these people: he was identifying with them. He was one of us. If the ‘us’ that he was part of is fading into history, that is all the more reason to be grateful that he was there to record the essence of it while it was still alive and kicking“ Elaine MorganAnd he was certainly ‘there’ amongst his characters, egging them on in this wonderfully extraordinary production in a somewhat grotesque form that I’m sure he would have approved. My own experience of working with Gwyn Thomas on his play Sap with the Welsh Drama Company was of a quiet circumspect professional concerned to see his play well presented but once out in the public air his thoughts would quickly turn to laughter and acutely observed absurdity. Told By An Idiot is a theatre company that also has a taste for absurdity and it was a stroke of genius on the part of John McGrath (Artistic Director of National Theatre Wales) to invite them to bring Thomas’ stories to the stage. Both the sadness of incest and of exploitation by the mine owner were vividly bought to life in the company’s highly professional and stylised manner with an hilarity that never obscured the poignancy of each moment. As with all NTW productions the stagecraft was of the highest order. Angela Davies’ design reflecting the wit in the dialogue with rows of valley small terraced houses represented by a terrace of wooden wardrobes, cupboards and chests; all caught in a strange beauty by Ceri James lighting with Iain Johnstone’s music and Laura Coates’ sound design always enhancing without in any way intruding. It was in fact a very fine piece of ensemble work on everyone’s behalf. Carl Grose’s adaptation of Thomas’ words created with the company bringing an additional edge of quiet buffoonery that all the cast relished in delivering. The narrative breaking twice to see Gwyn Thomas being interviewed by Michael Parkinson giving cast members a further opportunity to demonstrate their versatility and get some of the best laughs of the night. Apart from the actor, masked and trilby hatted, playing Thomas himself, each member of the cast (Alex Beckett, David Charles, Nia Davies, Ryan Hacker, Daniel Hawksford, Bettrys Jones, Glyn Pritchard and Laura Rogers) played many parts; females become males and males becoming females as the story demanded. All performances were top class. Young Thomas left outside the pub with a bottle of lemonade brought back my own post war memories; sadly it doesn’t seem to have the same effect on my literary skills as it did on Thomas. The manipulation of the puppet that represented the ‘baddie’ of the piece Oscar, was a highlight of the performance. It did take a while to tune in to the broad style of the performance, in fact the early moments of the production were a little alienating to many members of the audience. But once the narrative started to enfold and we gave ourselves up to the Told By An Idiot zeitgeist there was lots of fun and lots of humanity to enjoy. Gwyn Thomas would have enjoyed it, I’m not so sure about his wife Lynn. Once again the brave imagination of John McGrath has brought us a production that without his National Theatre Wales we might not otherwise have seen. |
Reviewed by: Michael Kelligan |
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