| Brassed Off- “There Will Still Be Music” |
Aberystwyth Summer Musical |
| Aberystwyth Arts Centre , Aberystwyth Arts Centre , August 10, 2023 |
Aberystwyth Arts Centre held a season of events last year to mark its fifty years of life. The pattern of a summer production with music goes back to 1980. Michael Ball was to be seen and heard, debuting in “Godspell.” The scale of the productions amplified with Michael Bogdanov and then Anthony Williams at the helm. Its audience franchise swelled, its geographical reach extending to Powys, Pembrokeshire, Gwynedd. The three years of absence of home-grown production were sorely felt. “Oliver” in 2019 was a return to the Arts Centre's best traditions. 2023 reprises that tradition in blending well-known names with faces, and young faces, from Aberystwyth. As if to emphasise the tradition the Oliver Twist of 2005, Sam Ebenezer, was in the audience for the first night of “Brassed Off”. 2022, the year of Ceredigion's Eisteddfod, was a one-off with “Operation Julie.” “Brassed Off” is a canny piece of programming, not musical theatre but theatre with music. Director Richard Cheshire has treated it as a drama with musical interludes. It has no vocals but has number after number played a by a twelve-strong brass ensemble. The music, running from “Nessun Dorma” to “Yma o Hyd”, is played with emphatic authority. Ioan Hefin is musical director on stage as the character Dafydd Protheroe. He is also musical director in life. The script makes mention that Dafydd played his first note at the age of ten. Music and Ioan Hefin go back even further. The size of the ensemble comes as a surprise. Director Richard Cheshire has hand-picked his cast for the main speaking parts. The publicity for the show shows nine faces, long familiar to audiences. Mr and Mrs Bumble from 2019 are there. So too is Constable Evans from “Operation Julie”. But Paul Allen's script, given its adaptation to Wales by Steffan Rhodri, opens with a narrator. Young teenager Scott is given an astonishingly assured performance by Owen Jac Roberts. In the nature of Aberystwyth's theatre he debuted years back at the age of six. The stage swells with other local actors and musicians. Theatr y Gwerin is a big space and gets a big company of twenty-one to fill it. Pete Lochery's set, austerely grouping pit-head, scaffolding and reversible corrugated iron walls, maximises the space for the players. The origin of the script, based on Mark Herman's screenplay, can be seen. The dramatic arc does not follow a single protagonist but is spread across a cluster of characters. This means that figures like Gillian Elisa's Vera and Sara Harris-Davies' Rita get to make a personal contribution late on. The upside is that the discursive narrative fits well with the nature of the company. The theme of the play is the hammer blow of external forces upon community and community is cross-generational. The generational spread reaches downward to Caitlin Rees Roberts and Jenna Louise McNicholls-Vale and upward to the characters Dai and Bri. Ieaun Rhys and Phylip Harries bring an easeful rapport to their performances; in life they go back to student days. The time setting, 1993, is suggested economically. There are mentions of MFI, the poll tax, a CEO in an Armani suit, a care job that pays £2.93 an hour. Dai is also an unashamed Sid the Sexist. Happily, the script gives Seren Sandham Davies' Gloria Jenkins some sharp lines of rebuttal and putdown. As the mid-generation young adults Gloria and Geraint Rhys Edwards' Barry Morgan bring vitality and charm to the narrative palette. If the plot plays out a historic death-blow to a village Marc Herman's script does not hold back from showing that women carry a heavy burden. Joey Hickman's Haydn plays a great trombone. But a new musical instrument costs £300 and Rachael Garnett's Mandy, with four children in her care, is juggling coins to meet a £1.50 shortfall in the shopping bill. A meeting with bailiffs ends in physical assault. Breakfast for a teenager can be a tin of spaghetti hoops. Poverty is daily pain that rarely lets up. Another mother tells of a son who has found a solution. But life in a distant Australia means the loss of loving connection. The brass band of Tonfandre has a heritage, dating back to 1881. Everything else may change, says Dafydd, but “there will still be music.” It feels like a kind of metaphor. The shock of the pandemic has been deep and continues; inflation has hit public venues hard. The materials for set-making are up eighty percent. But indeed there will still be music. And audiences know what they like. They rise to their feet in acclaim. Other credits: lighting design Elanor Higgins, sound design Ellis Griffiths, costumes Llinos Griffiths Gough, Amy Barrett. Aberystwyth actors: Sonia Dobson, Theresa Jones, Julie McNicholls-Vale. The production is dedicated to the memory of Nick Bache, for so many years a lynch-pin of Aberystwyth's theatre. “Brassed Off” is a big production with thanks given to many people in many directions. Among them is Alan Phillips, whose service to music and to the young people of Ceredigion has been long and of inestimable value. “Brassed Off” continues until 26th August. |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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