Sharon Morgan's striking new play for Hijinx Theatre is a mini-saga full of big ideas, lyrical language, deep emotions and a sense of history - so it did feel a little incongruous to see it on it's tour of Wales and England in Itton Village Hall, capacity 28, near Chepstow.
Somehow in that tiny space it seemed cramped.
But Hijinx is committed to taking quality work to small communities as well as venues like the Sherman and Theatr Clwyd. And the audience certainly appreciated having this thoughtful and ambitious piece.
The real-life tale of 1930s aviator and campaigner Amelia Earhart is the background to this fictional story of one Betty Parry.
Ms Parry's career as a dancer starts after meeting Amelia on the beach on that historic occasion when she was forced to land on Burry Port beach.
Amelia pays for Betty to have dancing lessons, encourages her to go to America and the rest is history - or would be if it were true.
Dreaming Amelia explores many things - the power of dance, the importance of roots, the oppression of patriarchy, the need for personal integrity, the value of role-models, the necessity to dream but not to escape reality and the fight of women to be free and independent. These are told with a mixture of poetry, mysticism and politics.
It needs some editing, especially towards the end, but it's powerful piece with Sian McDowall straight from the Welsh College of Music & Drama making an impressive professional debut and Kath Dimery holding it together with some bravura performances.
I just feel it needs more space, a better set: I suspect there's a bigger play trying to escape from this production's low-key style. |
