| Frank, Full & Occasionally Fierce- What Is to Be Done Supportng New Playwrights? |
Theatre Event |
| Wales Arts Review 2nd Roundtable , Wales Millennium Centre , November 10, 2014 |
An interest to declare: at the first Critics Round Table, 12th November 2012, I was an observer. The report from that four-hour event called it “an ambitious, engaged, wide-ranging afternoon” describing the critical discussion as “context, insight, description and concern.” For this second event I- neither organiser nor planner- made some comments on three current aspects of the critical climate in our digital world. With this over, fifteen minutes after the opening by Adrian Masters, I became for the remaining five and a quarter hours just another audience member. Eight events encompass panels, readings, book launch and award. There is a good piece of advice to any playwright or maker of any event: “start with the end and work it out from there.” The organisers have devised a truly memorable ending with a plenary session. Siân Phillips is present to read from, and make tribute from the heart to, Caradog Prichard. The occasion is the selection of the greatest novel of Wales. In her response to the choice of “Un Nos Ola Leuad” Mari Prichard has it to perfection, speaking with concision and insight in equal measure. Her father would have enjoyed it all, the gathering of new writers from Wales, the tributes to fiction, and not the least of it “Mwynhau yn ennill.” The events and discussions, prior to this last culminating award, have divided between the WMC's Salvi and Japan Rooms. The two strands oblige choice and decision of some difficulty .So no report on the exit of politics from pop or the future of arts criticism in Wales. Instead there are panel and audience discussion on the performing arts. “Opera: is opera dying and are the critics killing it?” is an amiable affair joining three critics and an opera-maker. The answer is no, but the dilemma of the critical approach is opened up. Traditional critics of the genre, who have been deeply steeped in musicology, home in on the music. The quality of the conducting, the tone and register of the singing are up for deep scrutiny. Look to the review from “the Sunday Times” this season on “the Trial” as an example. The critical language is one of chord sequences, pulsations and arpeggios. Michael McCarthy is a panel member. His company, says panel Chair Linda Christmas, does not even refer to itself as opera. The title is “Music Theatre Wales.” Certainly, the review on this site is the reverse to that of Paul Driver. Its assessment is principally in visual and performance terms with the score as complement. The audience for the theatre discussion bares more teeth and snarl. “What Can Be Done to Support New Playwrights in Wales?” is the title. To participate in the arts is in itself an act of courage but to be a producer in Wales is the bravest of all. Mike Salmon is present as a representative of a truly tiny clan. The aspirant maker of new plays has a double challenge, an audience that is not large in a culture that offers profusion. A community of three million is not large. As an audience member who does not see the venues from a Canton perspective I can sympathise to a degree with venue managers. Ceredigion has three busily scheduled venues in Mwldan, Felinfach and Aberystwyth Arts Centre. The Theatr Sir Gar circuit is not so far away with Carmarthen's Lyric and Halliwell. Performances pop up at Arad Goch, the Emily Davies Studio, Aberaeron’s Hall, Rhosygilwen, Small World, Lampeter's Arts Hall and Morlan. And we are a population of seventy thousand. It is a culture of profusion. No wonder the piece of contemporary drama has its problem in making a deep mark. |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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