The great success of Michael Kelligan’s State of the Nation season of script-held performances (An article on the project with particular emphasis on the State of the Nation season will be appearing in Planet in April) has ensured that the On The Edge project has become a permanent and on going part of the theatre scene in South Wales.
The project continues to attract many of the finest writers, actors and directors working in Wales. Kelligan has taken as his theme for his latest season, a recent work published by the project’s sponsor Parthian Books ‘Now You’re Talking’ (see Steve Blanford, Planet September 2006) in which the highly respected lecturer and former Arts Council of Wales member Professor Hazel Walford Davies interviews fifteen of Wales best known playwrights. The pessimistic view of many of the authors interviewed in the book is contrasted by their great enthusiasm and support for development of the On The Edge project which receives the support of The Arts Council of Wales.
The work of five of the playwrights interviewed in the book will be presented during the coming season.
With, Artistic Director of Wales National Youth Theatre, Greg Cullen’s strong and moving nineteenth-century play Mary Morgan set against a background of civil unrest, family disharmony and social and sexual inequality completing the season on Wed. 13 June. This is an epic play and as with other large-scale dramas such as the recent production of Patrick Jones’ Everything Must Go, presentation in the small-scale Media Point at the Chapter Art Centre, the strength and sound of the written word is brought into sharp focus.
Wed. 16 May sees a production of award wining author of Children’s plays Charles Way’s Paradise Drive looking at politics in the 1980’s. Was it as bad as you think in was?
Directed by David Prince
Following his extraordinary powerful production of Utah Blue, writer Dic Edwards is delighted that Kelligan will now revive his controversial play Franco’s Bastard on Thursday 5th April
Sunday March 18th will see a surprise Birthday Celebration for writer Mark Jenkins. His play Strindberg Knew My Father, winner of The London New Play Festival 1992 along with an adaptation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie.
The season opens on Wednesday Feb. 14 with a revival of the second play in Alan Osborne’s well-known Merthyr Trilogy, In Sunshine and In Shadow. First performed in 1985, Di Botcher, best known for her leading role in BBC Wales Belonging returns to recreate her original part of the eccentric Viv. Other parts will be played by BAFTA winner Brian Hibbard, Theatre Wales Best Newcomer winner, Lisa Zara, Aled Pugh, Richard Shackley, Terry Victor, and Tony Leader. The play will be directed by Michael Kelligan.
All plays start 8 PM - Tickets £3 on the door
Michael Kelligan 02920395078
On a recent visit to an American university, I chose to teach a course on the 'American' plays of some of the dramatists featured in the volume Now You're Talking (Parthian 2005). Faculty members and students alike greatly admired the texts, and in seminar sessions the students spoke enthusiastically of what one of them called 'the strong theatre sense and actability of these fine plays'. It was with sadness, therefore, that I had to confess that directors back in Wales had long been ignoring these works.
Then, on my return home, Michael Kelligan rang me with the excellent news that plays by five of the dramatists interviewed in Now You're Talking (Greg Cullen, Dic Edwards, Mark Jenkins, Alan Osborne and Charles Way) would be presented in the 2007 'On the Edge' project at Chapter Arts Centre.
In Now You're Talking these five dramatists, and ten others, had spoken out loud and clear. It is to the credit of Michael Kelligan and the Director and oficers of the Arts Council of Wales that they in turn listened, responding positively to what the dramatists had to say.
Hazel Walford Davies
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