Theatr Iolo |
| Theatr Iolo- One Day , Ninian Park School Cardiff , October 22, 2004 |
| THIS REVIEW FIRST APPEARED IN THE WESTERN MAIL Storytelling is, some say, what theatre is all about. Others, of a more postmodernist bent, demur; they hold that theatre is about subverting narrative. But for young people it’s what initially glues them to the action. Witness the kids at Ninian Park primary school, sixty of them who ignored background distractions to share the various adventures of men and women who are generally vain and stupid. Theatr Iolo under the direction of Kevin Lewis is expert in the skills of dramatic storytelling, where the story itself is embellished by the performers, the props and the space. Here an old abacus, a washboard, a saucepan and various hats and spoons are used to stand for other things so the actors share and stimulate the imagination of the audience. The three folk tales they have in their current tour have an added interest – they come from three of our new European neighbours (bureaucratspeak for the new members of the enlarged EU). From Hungary comes the story of the married couple who squander three wishes because they argue so much, from Poland the example of the man who cannot see when good fortune stares him in the face and from the Czech Republic the longer and more rambling fable that starts like King Lear, an old king dividing his kingdom between three daughters, but wanders off into various narrative byways. The first two are fairly straightforward moral tales based on the familiar human foibles of pettiness and self-obsession: given the chance of untold riches, a squabbling couple end up only with a sausage and a self-pitying oaf turns down a beautiful wife and a fortune because he’s convinced that he was born unlucky. The third is more complex – and, to be honest, harder to follow and be engaged. This is in part, I suspect, because the honest daughter (the Cordelia, if you will) says she loves her father “as much as salt” – a tribute which is going to be pretty alien from modern Western cultures even when the ironies are revealed. Landbound central European and Asian people still know, far more than we ever can, the value of salt. And this raises my real reservation about this trilogy of tales: the cultural differences, admirably exposed whether through the importance of the sausage or salt, can easily bemuse and alienate rather than intrigue. I imagine exploring the different cultural imperatives is integral to One Day…, but it also reveals the basic understandings we need to help make sense of life as a narrative. It’s a difficult one for Theatr Iolo, because the company obviously wants to create a world that is to an extent unfamiliar to its young audiences, and the language employed is not conversational English but as if in translation, but a world that is also clearly rooted in common human behaviour. Bickering couples, stupid men and sibling rivalry may all be recognisable to us but long sausages and dependence on salt, to name but the most obvious signifiers, may not be. I suspect it needs more explanation that is given to the young audience. In the after-show Q&A at Ninian Park the actors didn’t really make the cultural issues clear, I felt, and while the storytelling patently enraptured the kids the idea of framing the tales in foreign conventions was less successful. The cast – regulars Steve Hickman and Anna Joseph with newcomers Rosa Wyatt and Amy Gravelle – were, however, excellent at creating characters, telling the stories and engaging the audience, with Charlotte Neville’s designs simple but effective and some understated but appropriate music from Antony Lamb. One Day…, for 8-11 year-olds, is touring schools and has a limited-space performance for adults at The Gate, Roath, on November 9. Details 029 2061 3782. |
Reviewed by: David Adams |
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