| The Time of Joyous Return |
My Year of Theatre |
| A Half-Year , Performance in Wales & England , January 6, 2022 |
It was not quite a year of theatre. In England it was around seven months, in Wales a little under six. But, even if muted, it was a return from the dire days that were 2020. The regions were slower than the great dominant capital. London, with the audience, the catchment area, the younger population and the cash, was in the vanguard. Radio Wales' Review Show of Christmas Eve reported in its cheering round-up of 2021 that it was theatre of Wales that surprisingly broke the ice. It was National Theatre doing the most-cherished piece in the Welsh canon. Michael Sheen led in an adapted version of "UNDER MILK WOOD" for the Covid-19 age; Iwan Huw Dafydd, Lee Mengo, Gillian Elisa too were all there. It was theatre of Wales but not in Wales, being both a sell-out and a critical hit on the South Bank. * * * * The great unmelting was recorded step by step on this site. The quarterly round-up for 30th July, headed "the Long Night Wanes", opens: "It is as fraught and fragile a time as ever for performance...The FIRST PERFORMANCE IN WALES was made by Theatr na nÓg in early June, the setting a field adjacent to Theatr Brycheiniog. “We Need Bees” was scripted by Katherine Chandler and riffed on social distancing, three-word mantras, bee-related puns. The first actors to be seen in a long time were James Ifan, Lara Lewis and Aled Herbert." * * * * So it followed: ABERYSTWYTH ARTS CENTRE reopened 21st June, Llanelli’s FFWRNES THEATRE ran an event with a difference, “Ghost Light” running for six weeks, June 23 to July 31. The first tour belonged to THEATR IOLO. The first review on this site was ALAN HARRIS' effervescent "For the Grace of You Go I" at THEATR CLWYD. THEATR GENEDLAETHOL kicked off its first tour in August. DIRTY PROTEST got themselves to a much-diminished Edinburgh Fringe. New theatre productions flowed at speed: the TORCH, MERCURY THEATRE, FLYING BRIDGE, WALES MILLENNIUM CENTRE. The NATIONAL THEATRE OF WALES performed in November. * * * * The Covid-19 regulations diverged again across the United Kingdom at year-end. The pantomimes at the TORCH and THEATR CLWYD lasted only until Christmas Eve. The alternative cheeky "Christmas Carol" at the WMC was not to be seen. Theatres in Bristol, Worcester, Liverpool played on. For all the abrupt ending of the year- the return of a higher alert level issued by the Welsh Government came at a few days' notice- the words in the months before had just one theme- joy. Composer Stephen Goss was on Radio Wales' Arts Show 17th December to say: "The first live performance I went to after lockdown was one of the most moving things I've attended in my life...to be in an audience to listen to music with a full dynamic range and to be amongst an audience hungry...an overpowering emotion." I can reprise that. To see Rhodri Meilir, Remy Beasley and Darren Jeffries as embodied, full human beings after fifteen months was overpowering emotion. The photograph of Rhodri Meilir (above) indicates stage acting in action that can only be stage acting. As the review of 28th June said: "it is more than a review. It is a remembering of everything that contributes to make an event. Most of all it is a view from a public, re-entering a space made for the public." * * * * PHYLIP HARRIES spoke for all actors when he was interviewed for Radio Wales' Arts Show on 3rd December: "the joy of being on stage again and seeing an audience who really want to be there. You look out at faces that are smiling from beginning to end. And you smile. It's a great experience." His director- in open awe at the multiple talents of her cast- was also interviewed. It is not quite theatre as it was, and will be one day again. The mingling of cast and children afterwards in Mold did not happen but the audiences, before the abrupt 27th December-onward cancellations, got to see the colour and the dazzling costumes. TAMARA HARVEY spoke for all those who toil behind the lights to make it work, for us. "It was heavenly. I was sat at the back of the auditorium on Tuesday for a schools show and to have hundreds of kids screaming in delight as the lights went down, felt like a little piece of heaven." She is not quite right. It is not a little piece of heaven, it is heaven itself. |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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