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Theatre History |
| Theatre Fluellen Theatre- White Collar , Theatr Gwaun Fishguard , October 21, 2022 |
The long and multi-faceted creative life of Philip Burton (1904-1995) will be given to the public in a major biography in 2025. The production in 2017 of “Granton Street” aroused an interest far beyond the audiences who saw it. “White Collar” reprises the same group of characters and director Peter Richards has largely retained the same group of actors. The dramatic backgound has changed from an election to an imminent vote on a strike.In “White Collar”, a few years on, ownership of the colliery has changed. With the death of Granton it is now just one mine in the hands of a combine. The dramatic locus of “Granton Street” is the clash between brothers, the subtlety of education against the rawness of will to action. In “White Collar” doctor-son John Davies (Simon Peter Ancellon) is a returning visitor for the weekend with a £100 cheque for his family. The presence of a doctor is important for the course of the action but the dramatic clash has shifted to that between Uncle Jim (Brendan Purcell) and Will (James Scannell). Politics is an ever pivot between idea and actuality, principle versus pragmatism. “You see ideas and I see people” says Uncle Jim to his nephew. “I'm fighting for a principle” he says. Uncle Jim is a character of ambiguous quality in “Granton Street.” Philip Burton's elevation of his role to dramatic agent was done in response to audience reaction and their liking for him. The first scenes see him in his role as rascal, his involvement in illegal gambling bringing policeman Bert Harris (Matthew Bool) to the Davies home in Abernansant. Structurally “White Collar” lacks the elegance of “Granton Street” with an asymmetry of action over the five scenes. The gambling topic subsides with Will's late entry. He fixes the action's core on the decision to strike or not. A short passage of elapsed time concentrates drama and “White Collar” runs over a weekend. A plot detail mentions a job at the local Institute; at the time they were still repositories for a huge number of books. Burton weaves in a subplot with daughter Mary (Georgia Griffiths). She works for the offstage merchant Reuben. There have been lines of sly innuendo towards him in the early scenes. When it emerges that her relationship has gone beyond that of employee the latent antisemitism explodes. Burton gives his most incendiary lines to Mrs Davies (Nia Trussler Jones) whose role hitherto has been that of a conventional tea-making mam. The subject featured a half century on in the film “Solomon and Gaenor”. Burton's inclusion of it in his picture of domestic life has a punch to it and adds to the complexity between the characters. The industrial background has a similar nuance. A dismissal has been effected for a reason that is explainable, a winder who has been reading on the job. Will sees the strike, even without central union backing, as a contest of strength, irrespective of personal cost. “I think you're too strong to understand weakness” says his antagonist. “Weakness is more human than strength.” Burton fills out his social canvas with the Evans family. Eleri Bowden is affecting as daughter Alice, the college graduate back at home in search of teaching employment. Katherine Weare milks the role of once-Londoner Mrs Evans for all that the writing offers. The company tours to Theatr Gwaun's proscenium stage with a full set of the sitting room of the Davies home. The stage manager is Claire Novelli and the production is completed with Lee Miles' lighting and Will Davies' sound. A lilting piano between scenes sets the atmosphere. Productions of theatre from Wales' history are not regular. They are not produced at all by the major subsidised companies of Cardiff. See “the Corn is Green”, and the track record of Emlyn Williams productions below 16th June, which attracted Welsh theatre-goers in large numbers. “Granton Street” and “White Collar” are the most recent plays of Wales to take politics for their subject. There will be none for our era. The culture of Wales as a whole owes a debt to Fluellen Theatre for bringing these theatre works of political and public life by Philip Burton to a public stage. Prior to Fishguard both plays were performed in the preceding week at Swansea's Grand Theatre. |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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