| Consummate Actors in Labour of Love |
Theatr na n'Og |
| Theatr na nÓg- Nye & Jennie , Aberystwyth Arts Centre , October 21, 2018 |
All history is contemporary history. Theatre is no exception. “Don Carlos”, a drama set in imperial Spain, was performed in 1935 to an audience in Germany. The auditorium broke out in spontaneous applause at a line that Schiller had given to the Marquis of Posa. That did it for the play and it was immediately banned, a diktat that lasted for the duration of the regime.Meredydd Barker's script for Geinor Styles and company is a true labour of love, three years in the formation. It took in visits to the archives to read Jennie Lee's letters in a handwriting that is challenging, to put it mildly. The result compresses thirty years of political history into eighty minutes. The great women of Labour have been underwritten in history. It took until 1997 for Jennie Lee to receive a substantial biography. It took until 2017 for Alice Bacon to receive hers and then only because the author, Rachel Reeves, had the time, her abilities not being applied on the opposition front bench. Theatre is dialectic. The two-hander, set in a smoky sepulchral flat, is tribute to a bond of steel that made a political marriage. But if all history is contemporary history the dialectic that subtly haunts “Nye and Jennie” is the horror of the party that splits. Barker opens tellingly in the year of the formation of the National Government. Lee leaves Labour and with it her seat in parliament until 1945. The words that her biographer used was that Bevan berated her mercilessly. The threads that run through are the paradox of power and the difficulty of certainty. A pre-war neighbour is a German Jew in exile who holds an Iron Cross for military valour. In the 1930s Bevan is biting in criticism of the British government's policy of neutrality. In wartime Lee shakes hands with the devil, in the form of working for Beaverbrook. “I have complicated loyalties” says Bevan. “Uncertainty”, says Lee, “is just a guise for indecision.” And behind two great individuals is the party, ever contentious, fissiparous. But party is the route to power and virtue per se is not enough. The script is so compressed that Snowden, Cripps, Bevin, Morrison, Gaitskell have to go unmentioned. The Cabinet that formed in 1945 was one that was bonded in a loathing probably greater than that of 2017. If one exchange encapsulates what the play is about it is Bevan: “I have power.” Lee: “ It is soiled and compromised.” Artworks, once given to the world, cease to belong to their makers. The interpretation is open. The party that rules in 2018 is the most successful political organisation there has ever been; it does not split. This may well be over-reading what “Nye and Jennie” is all about. But in 2018 the Labour candidates of Wales are divided. On the issue of ultimate sovereignty over the leaving of Europe, Drakeford- at least as of mid-October- supports the leadership in London while Morgan and Gething do not. But theatre is a communal event to be experienced, it is not a political seminar. Neath's doughty little theatre company has brought in an audience fifteen times greater than that in Ceredigion of 4th July by a company of vastly greater public subsidy. The reasons are simple- the use of a theatre, advertising and the desire to attract an audience. In the newly renovated Theatr y Werin Ceredigion's MP from the 1990s is to be sighted. The Presiding Officer of the Senedd is present to see what the theatre of Wales can do. The applause at the end is deep and heartfelt. The emotional crux of “Nye and Jennie” is simple, a slow embrace of a dance by two people. Maggie Rawlinson is choreographer and Jak Poore composer. The physical world that the two inhabited was of a dowdiness that is revealed in the art direction of every British film of the period. Kitty Callister's design is faithful in this, accentuated by Hristo Takov's lighting. A great voice coach, Cicely Berry, died this week, October 15th. Voice coaches are the part of the process who are never to be seen. Emma Stevens-Johnson has the role here, her contribution manifest in the results. The best directors likewise are immanent but absent. We see actors. The two players never leave the stage. Gareth John Bale is a familiar presence in the West with a known versatility from Grav to Francis Henshall, Louise Collins less so. She has already made her mark on Wales' theatre of 2018 with riveting acting in Edinburgh. Jennie Lee broke with the convention of her time. She was a public speaker of evangelical power and possessed of a sexual self-assurance. It is all there in the acting. In the life Lee would walk naked in the privacy of the home, in the script she has a silk kimono. The Jennie Lee, at least from Patricia Hollis' biography, is all there. The transformative difference by Louise Collins from Brad Birch's Sophie in the summer is a wonder. But then the actors of Wales are just that, unfailingly. “Nye and Jennie” continues to Maesteg Town Hall 23rd, the Riverfront, Newport 24th, 25th Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon , 26th Galeri, Caernarfon, 2 & 3 November Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 7th Garth Olwg, Pontypridd, 9th Theatr Stiwt, Rhosllanchrugog, 10th Hafren, Newtown, 13th Neuadd Dwyfor, Pwllheli, 14th Pontardawe Arts Centre, 15th Ffwrnes, Llanelli, 16th Borough Theatre, Abergavenny and 17th the Torch. |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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