At Sgript Cymru |
| Sgrip Cymru | Paines Plough- Art and Guff , Chapter Arts Centre, cardiff , March 15, 2001 |
| The set, a very realistic, squalid 'been there-done that' (well I have) bed-sit hits you as you enter the theatre. The 'Portishead' music blaring at us tells us we are in 'Young People Land'. Although when we meet them they turn out to be not so young. The play opens with some lively banter between the two principle characters telling us that these two lads get on really well together and putting the audience into a good comedy mood. The odd slightly erudite phrase slips into the dialogue and we realise that these two aren't just two 'don't give a damn' youngsters that are just out for a good time but a couple of thirty something Welsh boys with real literary ambitions! The play is a reflection on the fact that many people have desperate aspirations and fight hard to fulfil them. Some times battling against the odds, winning a few steps forward then moving more steps back. The boys are faced with the opportunity to take a possible small step up the ladder but are over come by the undermining effect that they have on each other and slip back into apathy and frustration. The boyo 'loveableness' and sensitivity of these two characters is skilfully created by Catherine Tregenna, along with the 'sit-com' highly amusing banter or 'GUFF'- even. She examines and explores many aspects of human nature in a very compelling and entertaining way -'ART'. I recall seeing Peter O'Toole in one of the first 'out of London' performances of John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger" at the Bristol Old Vic. That was a performance very much of its time as this play is very much of the times we are experiencing now. Two sickly ghouls, in the form of downstairs hippie neighbours disrupt Art and Guff's already somewhat untidy lives. These characters are so well portrayed by Ralph Arliss and Glenna Morrison and my one criticism of the play is that there could have been even more involvement between them and the other two characters. Richard Harrington as Art so successfully created a well-rounded character and conveyed his artistic frustrations with a gut wrenching effect on all of us. All the cast bounced of one another very well but for me Roger Evans demonstrated a warmth of personality and an ability to communicate with the audience that well above and beyond the call of all expected endeavour. A fitting reward for the steady and well informed hand and head of director Bethan Jones. The dreadfully sad end of the play curiously gives us a glimpse of hope by demonstrating the strong real love that these two boys have had for one another. But the down beat ending has a telling inevitability. In the Seventies and Eighties each theatrical event that was put on felt like founding a Welsh Theatre movement, failing and starting all over again. We are, thank goodness with the work of Sgript Cymru, and others, now well beyond that stage. Here's hoping that the partnerships established between Sgript Cymru and The Soho Theatre in London and 'Paines Plough' will continue and other contacts made that will ensure that quality Welsh drama will now be seen by a much wider audience throughout the UK. And, as demonstrated by this play, also by Carri Munn and Karin Diamond in "Spin" and Darren Lawrence in Roger William's "Saturday Night Forever and many others we, most certainly have the talent to merit it. |
Reviewed by: Michael Kelligan |
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