| A Look-back and Guide |
At Mercury Theatre |
| Mercury Theatre , Theatre of Wales , April 21, 2024 |
Productions of Mercury Theatre are reviewed below:14 September 2018, 05 July 2017, 01 July 2017: “35 Times” “The cast comprises six women spanning four or five decades in age. They all have stories to tell. Llinos Daniel's Jules ends with a short statement of shocking explanation. The goal is domination, total and simple. In one of Bethan Morgan's chronicles the grip of alcohol gouges out a marriage. Eventually it is concern for the physical safety of a child that prompts departure. From a distance the man wheedles and implores by phone. It is not said in the script but the digital world has been of no advantage to the victims of violence and abuse. “Catrin-Mai Huw's Gemma is the extrovert with the tale from beyond the social pale, serial pregnancies from serial men who follow the same pattern. At the other end of talkativeness Rasheeda Ali's Tara has had an experience of such extremity as to pitch her into silence. She writes short single-sentence notes that are handed to the audience. The revelations of Natalie Paisey as Claire, Olwen Rees as Glenys and Clêr Stephens as Val are all different and all build to a composite picture.” * * * * 18 December 2015, 19 December 2014: “Anamnesis 25.12” “Mercury Theatre’s successor production to “Spangled” has visited residential homes before this five-venue tour. Its setting, and concept, has freshness and novelty. Its setting might be guessed by Bethan Morgan in costume who welcomes each and every audience member on arrival. Anamnesis- this is the second piece this year to have a weighty classical word in its title- has meanings, the programme explains, in the realms of both psychology and medicine. In the latter it refers to “the complete history recalled and recounted by a patient.” “The form is impressionistic, leading up to a set-piece of a stressed-out Christmas dinner across three generations of family. Less-than-welcome visitors include hoodie Jesus, pronounced Hay-zoose, who leaves a tooth and what else in the twenty-one year old malt and nicks a yet-to-be-opened prized vintage cognac. When the police arrive it is in the form of Sam Harding armed and in flak jacket. Even for these nervy days it feels a little like over-kill.” “Some of the performers are familiar faces. David Prince, Judith Haley and Daniel Rochford are joined by Francesca Goodridge, a 2014 graduate, in five roles covering the span from ten year old horror to mother of a teenager. Holly Genevieve is video artist and Dan Young lighting designer. Also offstage is the considerable presence of Lynn Hunter in the role of assistant director.” * * * * 09 May 2013, 03 May 2013: “Spangled” “The Aberystwyth Studio lends itself superbly to the concept of “Spangled.” Its circular space is stripped of seating and allows the audience to move freely. Starburst lighting belts across the domed ceiling. The particular choice of timing in the year is admittedly not the greatest, with exams pending and the students’ May Ball about to happen. Mercury Theatre’s evocation of 1990’s club culture probably does not get the sweat, push and crush that would have been wished for. “Among the cast of six Lee Mengo is DJ Johnny, strutting star behind the turntable and privately wondering at age thirty what his life is about. Rhys Downing gets to deliver a speech of rage begging for respect. The best character is Jason May’s Steve, a deep-dyed misogynist, his pockets filled with Ecstasy, bragging about his new phone. He confronts anyone in the audience willing to listen “Everyone will have one of these one day”. “The music is courtesy of Jimpy and Phil Williams is choreographer. The energy of the cast is astounding. Sian Davies, in pink with a pair of dinky inflatable angel wings to match her name, is dancing when the audience is let in and guided towards Holly Fry’s coat-check girl Donna. Sian Davies’ dancing barely stops for breath for the next fifty-five minutes, and 1993 Clubland does not do slow.” * * * * 15 February 2012: “A Gringo’s Journey/ Nine Suitcases” “Both plays are adaptations by Cardiff based actor, director and teacher David Prince, who also performs the second play of autobiographical works by two very different authors. A Gringo’s Journey is an account, by Chris Osborn, of an extraordinary bicycle journey along the Pacific coast from Vancouver to the furthest reaches of Argentina after he exchanges a Greyhound bus pass for panniers and a bicycle in Denver, Colorado. A mad-cap gripping adventure full of many surprises and good humoured observations of the people and places he meets on the journey. “In Béla Zsolt’s Nine Suitcases, a work that has been described as “One of the greatest memoirs of the Holocaust ever written” from Ladislaus Lob’s translation, David Prince takes us on a much more terrifying journey. It gives not only a rare insight into Hungarian fascism, but also a shocking exposure to the cruelty, indifference, selfishness, cowardice and betrayal of which human beings—the victims no less than the perpetrators—are capable in extreme circumstances.” * * * * 18 August 2004: “The Pull of Negative Gravity” “Jonathan Lichtenstein’s new play ‘The Pull of Negative Gravity,’ is inspired by the revelation that ‘more soldiers commit suicide during and after a conflict than are killed by enemy action during the conflict itself.’ It is not about the rights or wrongs of a conflict but about its human cost. The war is never entirely about the men who fight but also about the families, especially the women in the role of carer, who pay that price. The war never entirely ‘somewhere else.’ Lichenstein’s writer’s note in the programme speaks of how ‘the weight of things can wreak a quiet havoc.’ His play is not about fury but those rarer qualities: compassion and understanding. Hence the title with its almost whistful association with cosmic weightlessness. “It is appropriate that we see the two women first: Louise Collins is the hysterical Bethan, Dai’s fiancée, madly, crazily dancing on the mountain top as helicopters come in to land, desperate to see him return, while Joanne Haworth is a stoic Vi, the mother who sits bitterly within stuffing envelopes with fliers for health care insurance. Their bodies tell the tales of intense pressure. Vi puts a stone in her mouth. She cannot swallow it. The writing is rich, poetic, firmly located in the patterns and rhythms of West Wales.” |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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