Theatr Iolo |
| Y Dywysoges a’r Bysen Fechan Fach , Sherman Cymru. , December 12, 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. You could watch the audience just as easily as watch the actors in this piece – clusters of young faces clearly enthralled by one of Hans Christian Andersen’s simplest fairy stories. And not just enthralled: this production asked them to properly engage their imaginations and thus create a decayed castle from the theatre-makers’ suggestions alone, such as the plinkily dripping soundscape and the glowing array of chandeliers overhead, suggesting a great multiplicity of rooms in this slowly crumbling pile, albeit under a tattered roof. The story is classically simple. Lovelorn prince seeks princess while mother distrusts any and all candidates for her son’s hand in marriage. The Queen is aided by a magical test true princess-dom, namely an inability to sleep on a pea hidden under a mattress, or indeed a pile of twenty mattresses. In the English version we had multi award winning Katherine Chandler’s words: in this one Ceri Elen’s lucid and effective translation. In my six (and a half) year old Onwy’s opinion the words were some of the highlights “especially the funny words” by which I think she meant the ones she didn’t understand. Another favourite moment came the prince slipped on a carpet and she twigged this wasn’t in the script. Theatr Iolo veteran Jenny Livesey was a steely mother, clearly wanting the best for her son, and played the Queen with a touch of regal ice, the sort of regal matriarch you wouldn’t want to cross. The play depends a great deal on the central chemistry between the Prince (Gethin Alderman) and the Princess (Ceri Elen) and my, how they delivered. Ceri Elen was just entrancing – a totally believable princess straight out of Fairytale Central Casting – while Alderman gave her the perfect foil, being the boy-who-will-not-grow up who wants a playmate just as much as a soul-mate. He is visited by a hopeful procession of princesses, all of whom don’t mass muster and all played by Elen with nothing more than a costume change, or, rather, a change of saucepans on her head. My fellow critic, Onwy, liked them all, even the “chatterboxy one.” The prince, predictably, chooses the princess who’s the most fun and the most ingenuous and able to join him in a good food fight when the moment’s right One of the things we like about fairy tale is the dependability of the formulae. The songs were simply written and crisply delivered, and yet were hauntingly catchy, and the actors’ movements, coached by Jem Treays, effective in both their restraint and poise. One of the princess’s little skipping dances was a particular delight in this regard. So, a lovely Saturday morning at the theatre then, fully transported to another world, and a magical one at that, even if the castle roof does leak like a sieve. Must get that fixed. Maybe in the Spring. |
Reviewed by: Jon Gower |
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