| A Look-back and Guide |
Theatr Iolo |
| Theatr Iolo , Theatre of Wales , April 28, 2024 |
The reviews of productions by Theatr Iolo can be read below"3D”: 22 November 1997 “Theatr Iolo has built up a reputation for delivering accessible hut challenging theatre, which is increasingly recognised as one of the most effective ways to raise awareness and encourage discussion of difficult issues. One Headteachcr described it as "...an excellent production that stimulated and entertained." And a Comprehensive School teacher thought it was "A magnificent effort...and a thought-provoking programme." "Are We There Yet?": 01 June 1, 2005 (3): 25 July 2003 “Anna Joseph plays a girl on a journey with her father (Kevin Lewis) and brother (Oliver Wilson-Dickson). We don't know where they're going or where they've come from, nor even their mode of transport. “The production by Sarah Argent is gently paced and precisely acted, with an elemental vocabulary to match an imaginative flair that any child will understand. If it doesn't make your next family outing any easier, it should at least, like Waiting for Godot, strike a chord of existential recognition.” "Adventures In The Skin Trade": 30 October 2014: 10 October 2014 “To Theatr Iolo’s presentation of Dylan Thomas’ surreal unfinished novel, Adventures in the Skin Trade. Lucy Gough who has adapted the story for the stage brings her own touch of magic that adds even more delight to Thomas’ tantalizing imaginings. Written in the last year of his life it indicates a development towards a prose form, still with his brilliance but maybe more easily accessible than much of his poetry. “The tall bent wood coat stand is a toilet roll holder; Sam spends most of his train journey to London cramped up in the toilet much to the chagrin of Mr George Ring. A gorgeous and outrageous performance from the tight tweed suited, bow tied Matthew Bulgo. His snake-like dancing entwines its way through the many obstacles to life that is the furniture scattered in no particular order about the stage.” "Bison and Sons": 03 June 2004: 06 March 2002: 20 March 2001 “Artistic Director Kevin Lewis has a proven mastery for coming up with drama for children at all levels of their schooling. The work of the company is never patronising or ‘childish’ but always erudite, challenging, captivating and extremely entertaining. This last vital element is one that often gets forgotten in the maelstrom of creativity that goes on in some companies. Bison and Sons is certainly a fine and typical example of the company’s work. The play is an import from the Netherlands. Translated by Rina Vergano, it was originally commissioned by the Dutch, Theater Artemis from award winning playwright Pauline Mol. The confusion in the minds of young people knows no international borders.” “Box of Fear”: 19 June 1996: 01 June 1996 “Commissioned by Cardiff County Council as part of its anti-racist policies, Box of Fear is a simple story of a young boy of Indian parentage born in Manchester who has to put up with "Paki filth" abuse in a climate where adult racism is seen within a context of trade union protectionism and job threats. The boy's friendship with a white classmate offers some kind of hope.” "The Brothers Grimm": 31 October 2012 “The main impression of Kevin Lewis' direction is its utter clarity. A half-term matinee is heavily weighted towards the minimum recommended age of six. With an audience like this, a show either has them or it hasn't. The absence of shuffle-wriggle noise says it all. Erini Gregoriades' set, two movable blocks of contrasting size, is formed by a jumble of open frames, that serve as window and wood, cell and oven. Jane Lalljee's lighting casts the set in autumn russets and evening blues. Low-level lighting keeps the high spaces of the Carmarthen’s Lyric stage a suitably scary black.” "Y Dywysoges a’r Bysen Fechan Fach": 12 December 2015 “Theatr Iolo have a long and distinguished pedigree when it comes to entrancing young audiences and their latest production did nothing to diminish that reputation. Holding the attention of little ones is a task in itself, but to hold them rapt and completely so is another thing altogether. And fifty minutes must be at the extreme end of attention-holding when it comes to little kids sitting on a theatre floor. But hold them it did, without any gaudy tricks, razzmatazz or Disney values. The ever-dependable director Kevin Lewis kept the production simple and pellucidly clear, to everyone’s benefit. Nothing too showy.” "Eye of the Storm": 19 March 2004 “Time was when Wales’s Young People’s Theatre groups were an endangered species, threatened with extinction by bureaucrats and arts mandarins who couldn’t see the sense or the skills in this network of exemplary small-scale companies that cover the country’s schools. Today, though, there’s almost a swagger in their stage work as they strut their recent recognition by the powers-that-be. There is, it seems to me, a confidence in their productions that proclaims their acknowledged importance to theatre in Wales. Take Theatr Iolo, the Cardiff-based company that has been close to closure in the past, despite unquestionable artistic and educational success. For reasons that probably have little to do with quality or effectiveness and all to do with politics their grant from the arts council has doubled.” "The Flock": 28 February 2005: 15 February 2005 “It’s now twenty years since a report was brought out, highly commending the eight TIE/Community Companies working in Wales. Not so long afterwards the Arts Council proposed to completely cut the grants to half of them. There was a brilliant movement of protest, the Chief Executive of the Arts Council lost her job and all the companies were saved. “Vic, the character played here by Carri Munn is a lonely street sparrow, very different from the extravagant blasé character she gives us in her Munn and Diamond comedy persona. She is a very versatile actor equally able to represent the bullying rapist landlord as she is to give us the lost vulnerability of her main character.” "Grimm Tales": 19 November 2003 “Theatr Iolo’s Artistic Director Kevin Lewis and his adapter, the highly acclaimed Scottish poet Carol Ann Duffy, continue this tradition of story telling for young people with this present production of two of the tales. “The quality of Theatr Iolo's work is now being recognised far beyond the borders of Cardiff and The Vale of Glamorgan. Their production of “Are We There Yet” shown recently at the Take Off Festival in South Shields has been invited to be performed in Festivals of Children theatre in Finland and Belgium. Another production “Bison & Sons” will also be seen at the children’s international festival in Edinburgh in 2004. "Hazey Jane": 24 March 2007 “Kevin Lewis’s shows avoid any hint of dumbing-down or patronising: this may be a play about teenagers made for teenagers but it’s made by adults and has adult artistic standards. “Jane, on the other hand, has more academic leanings but a different taste in music. She’s the one who lends Shaun her Nick Drake CD but actually prefers more popular stuff, consistently gets As and assumes she’ll follow in her father’s footsteps and become a doctor. Hazey Jane is the love story of this unlikely couple.” "Here Be Monsters": 11 August 2013 “Designer Charlotte Neville’s delightful mess greets us as we settle in our seats. A patch of waste ground on the edge of the town. Two young, near teenage girls stand around already bored at the start of the summer holidays. Sam is much more self-possessed than Elfi. Elfi finds a tattered old book, the first of many distractions this littered patch will throw up at them as the day goes by. With writer Mark Williams’ colourful dialogue the children set up the atmosphere that will permeate the whole of the play. We hear a story about a grotesque doll in a haunted fridge. Sam has gone; Elfi is alone with her ‘half brother’ Ed. Magic and monster pictures emerge from the book. They look closely into it and conclude that it is telling them that they need to trap, in the jam jars that they have prepared for the job, four monsters by nighttime or the town will die. There has been a strange feel about the town for some time.” "Journey": 18 June 2002 “The piece originally devised in 1993 remains fresh, exciting and highly amusing absorbing its audience to the highest degree. Its clean simplicity is the key to its success. With its deliberate Picasso influence, Portuguese designer Ana Mestre setting is much more accessible its colour and form giving it a delicate cartoon quality which is taken up by the performers. Gwenfair Vaughan Jones as 'The Old Woman' totters gracefully. Emyr John give a touch of poetry and bewilderment as 'The Captain' and there a particularly lovely performance of 'The Bird' by Ana Joseph although she doesn't actually fly she certainly looks as if she is very able to do so. The three of them don't seems to get on very well to begin with but as the play progress they find that they have a real need to get on well together and form a very happy 'portrait and the curtain call.” "'Marcos" & "The String-man": 25 July 2000 “Most of the recent furore about the Arts Councils controversial new drama strategy centred not on its relations with high-profile companies like Brith Gof or the Magdalena Project or Made in Wales but on the reorganisation of young people's theatre provision - plays rarely seen by adults performed by actors who are hardly household names. “Theatre-in-education (TIE) has long been the jewel in the crown of Welsh theatre and, outside the country, it is companies like Theatr Powys, Spectacle and Arad Goch whose names are known. TIE was the first real form of established theatre in Wales and over 30 years it has developed and matured, which is why so many parents and politicians berated the Arts Council for planning to halve the number of companies.” “A marvellous one-man performance from Kevin Lewis, who tells the true story of a young Spanish 'wild' boy and the culture clash between a natural life and so-called civilisation. Marcos has played to acclaim in London, Europe and America and indeed it is first-class theatre. If only grown-up theatre were as good.” "Out of the Blue": 20 December 2012 “This perfect introduction to live theatre was created with the support of Small Size, the European Network for the diffusion of performing arts for early years. Director Sarah Argent has won awards for her work on young people’s drama but this was her first foray into the world of these earliest of years. The fact that she has struck just the right note was clearly visible in the wide-eyed expressions on the faces of children watching. The reactions of the small children were equally as engaging as the performance on the stage which was pitched perfectly by actor Kevin Lewis, moonlighting from his ‘day-job’ as Artistic Director of the eclectic Theatre Iolo. Most well-known playwrights including the greatest of them all, William Shakespeare staring at a blank piece of paper, asked to write a play for viewers between six and eighteen months would, I am sure have gone on staring. This collaboration between these two very caring artists could not be bettered.” "The Room": 11 March 2002 “An hour of crystal clear brilliance. The dialogue and the performers sparkled and made us all carry a warm smile on our faces throughout the show and for a good while afterwards. Kevin Lewis, long serving Artistic Director of Theatr Iolo continues to explore the creation of intelligent and appropriate plays to entertain and inform his young audiences.” "Snow Child": 16, December 16, 2010 “In the Weston Studio in the Wales Millennium Centre meet the quiet wonder that is the Snow Child. She’s discovered by a little boy – well he’s not really a little boy but a very clever actor called Aled Herbert and he acts the part of a little boy, who like all little boys can be quite naughty at times. “If you are between three and six get someone to take you down to the Millennium Centre where you will meet the Snow Child, and all her friends. There are some performances in the Welsh language. Whatever the language you and the grown-ups with you will be totally entranced by this very simple and beautiful production created by the deft touches of Sarah Argent, Dafydd James and Kevin Lewis.” "The Ugly Truth": 26 February 2010 “The Ugly Truth does deal with truth and with ugliness and this play, currently touring to secondary schools in Cardiff and The Vale of Glamorgan, presents us with its ugliness in a fantastical and frantic comedy performance from Hannah McPake that clearly places her amongst the top female comedy performers in the country. Lee Evans in a hoody! She gives us a magical double edged performance along with her ‘friend’ and protagonist, given an outstandingly assured first professional performance by Shekira Johnson.” "Under the Carpet": 11 June 2009: 18th May 2007 “Welsh company Theatr Iolo's Under the Carpet, is a joyful, unpatronising evocation of how young children perceive and respond to the world around them. It's aimed at three to five-year-olds, and though the two storytellers are adult characters, Lol and Nonno, their tales have come originally from the mouths of nursery tots. The result is an oddly surreal, yet totally believable vignette of everyday friendship and domesticity where ordinary tasks or objects can, through the prism of imagination, become special or extraordinary.” “Visiting Katt and Fredda”: 04 November 2011 “Beneath all this joviality there are the beginnings of some real, Pinteresque tension. Director Kevin Lewis, with actors Aiste Gramantaite, Katt and Ceri Elen, Fredda have cleverly been able, with the pitch of their playing, to present us with a hint of tension beneath their seeming ‘domestic’ bliss. Soon the air starts to slowly seep out of the balloon. Katt begins to contemplate, quite innocently, the prospect of a visitor but Fredda is more than happy to let things stay as they are.” “Writer Ingeborg von Zadow, a very popular and successful children’s playwright in Germany, could have taken the easy way out and they could have all lived ‘happy ever after’, but we discovered in the question and answer session after the show that ending the play this way really provoked the minds and imagination of the young school children that the play is aimed at and they came up with some very startling and considered interpretation. Which is exactly what this production was designed to do. There was thoughtful provocation and great enjoyment for the ‘grown ups’ as well.” Picture: Brothers Grimm |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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