| "The Electricity of Performance. We Have Missed It Painfully": the Year that Performance Came Back |
My Year of Theatre |
| The Productions That Mattered in 2022 , Best of-Year Retrospectives , December 29, 2022 |
Gary Raymond opened Radio Cymru Wales' “the Review Show” of 23rd December: "We have continually been reminded of what a difference it makes to be in the presence of the electricity of live performance rather than the filmed versions during the period in which we were deprived of the real thing...We have missed it painfully over the last two years.” BBC Wales allows the Review Show just a once a month appearance. The contrast with the Radio Wales Arts Show is marked. Gary Raymond: “As a monthly show quite a bit falls outside our line of vision. We miss a bit. It can't be helped. But this is always an opportunity to shout out to those shows which I thought were great like Na Nog's “Operation Julie” and Seiriol Davies' “Milky Peaks”. The review of the year reprised its coverage of “Tylwyth: “superb...one of my favourite shows of the year.” * * * * Production of the year was “the Corn is Green”. Gary Raymond: “one of the most profoundly moving experiences, as a Welshman, in a theatre. I was completely won over by it.” As reviewed here 16th June there was a paradox to the production. For the second year after the pandemic London's national theatre presents an all-Welsh production where Cardiff's national theatre does not. This has a result. From the review: "Since the return of performance the National Theatre has been kind to the classics of Wales. There was not a seat to be had in May 2021 for the re-inventing of "Under Milk Wood." Many in Wales took the journey to the South Bank; the degree of enthused Welsh to be heard in the bar afterwards was, I was told by one who was there, so great that it felt like being in Carmarthenshire. "At "the Corn is Green" it raises not an eyebrow when I say to an audience neighbour about "byw yng Ngheredigion." Like a year ago theatre-goers of Wales are making the journey to see a drama of Wales. The box office confirms the numbers are substantial." * * * * Wales Arts Review published its best of the year 3rd December. Angel- Torch Theatre Milky Peaks- Theatr Clwyd The In-Between- Theatr Clwyd & National Youth Theatre Wales Operation Julie- Theatr na nÓg & Aberystwyth Arts Centre The Making of a Monster- Wales Millennium Centre Of Mice and Men- Torch Theatre Stone the Crows- Company of Sirens My Mix(ed-Up) Tape- Dirty Protest Theatre A Midsummer Night’s Dream- The Sherman On 31st December Wales Arts Review published its top choices of the year. "Operation Julie" was its number one for 2022. * * * *. Book reviewers and film critics can get to read and see the lot. Theatre lists can never quite overlap because no critics ever get to see the same. From the press in London: the Stage has a wider eye than any publication. It gets to Inverness and Derry. “Operation Julie” made its best of the year list. Susannah Clapp is now the most long-standing theatre critic in England. Her top ten of the year included “Celebrated Virgins” at Theatr Clwyd. Katie Elin-Salt has made many an appearance on this site, but 2022 was a notable accomplishment for a new actor-turned-playwright. * * * * References: The Review Show: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001g7pp “Tylwyth”: Theatre Wales Quarterly Review 15th December Wales Arts Review Best of Year: https://www.walesartsreview.org/welsh-theatre-our-best-of-2022/ Company of Sirens: Theatre Wales 5th May 2022 Susanna Clapp Best of Year: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/dec/18/susannah-clapp-10-best-theatre-shows-of-2022 “Celebrated Virgins”: Theatre Wales 23rd June 2022 |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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