| "Wales Sentimentalised as a Timeless Land of Myths and Legends" |
At Theatr Clwyd |
| Atlantis- Theatr Clwyd & Chichester Festival Theatre , Theatr Weston, Mold & Chichester Theatre , August 24, 2026 |
“Freak Out!” was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2024. Its setting, the fictional village of Portsford, was modelled on the communities of north Norfolk. It is a shoreline rendered vulnerable by water and also the long-term geomorphic tilt of Great Britain. Coin Toss Collective blended clowning and physical theatre with a degree of naturalism. With a company of seven the production used video and interviews with residents. The actors immersed their heads in buckets of water and emerged soaking. The conclusion of the piece was to build, to apply concrete. * * * * Climate change is not a new subject for theatre. “The Contingency Plan” by Steve Waters was made up of two plays “On the Beach” and “Resilience”. Their lead character was a scientist, its drama his conflict with political interests. Produced by the Bush Theatre in April 2009 it was in the shortlist for the John Whiting Award. In 2011 climate change was the subject for two productions of significance. The National Theatre put on “Greenland”, the work of four dramatists. Its characters included a scientist modelling climate patterns, a young activist, and an observer recording species decline in the Arctic. It was not a success, earning the company some of its worst-ever reviews. Its principal and repeated deficiency was its didacticism, which was allied to a lack of narrative depth. By contrast “The Heretic” was a success for the Royal Court. Playwright Richard Bean opted for black comedy in his treatment about climate change and its sceptics. Veteran critic Charles Spencer saw “an absolute corker, funny, provocative and touching, and absolutely resolute in its refusal to lapse into the apocalyptic gloom that usually attends this subject.” Jeremy Herrin directed a cast that included Juliet Stevenson, James Fleet, Lydia Wilson and Johnny Flynn. It was subsequently performed at the Melbourne Theatre Company in 2012. In 2013 it was performed at the Burning Coal Theatre in Raleigh, North Carolina. It can be read in a collection of Bean's plays. “Water” was produced by the Tricycle Theatre. The Royal Shakespeare Company produced “Kyoto” by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson in 2024. Its subject was emission standards and control at the highest political level. It moved to the Soho Place Theatre in London for a season. It was a superb exemplar of political theatre. It was superb because it was drama. * * * * The promotion for “Atlantis” read “A powerful new play about a Welsh coastal community on the frontline of climate change is heading to Theatr Clwyd this summer.” The Argus wrote “This is an angry play: angry at the media, angry at politicians, angry at the general public for turning a blind eye to the issue. Coupled with the subject matter, and you have the recipe for a full-on preachfest.” The number of productions covered by critics from the major newspapers continues to shrink. “Atlantis” during its Chichester run was little reviewed. The Arts Desk wrote that “Atlantis” was “drowning in passionate exposition...too often tells where it could show.” The Guardian got to Mold and discerned a dramatic dearth. “While the village is not identified by name, it serves as the inspiration for Emily White’s Atlantis. Focusing on fisherman Bryn and his wife Gwen (Richard Elfyn and Vivien Parry), the action extends from 2011 to 2039, dramatising what has already occurred and imagining what comes next as weather systems and a community both are undone. “These are certainly pressing and consequential concerns, and there is lyricism in the play’s unfolding sense of time, from the daily to the generational to the geological. But the beats of the domestic drama through which this catastrophe is refracted are often contrived. The dramatic tension is propelled by conveniently antagonistic exchanges, and exposition is overstated. “It gestures towards deeper, more provocative issues such as the burden of environmental consciousness and the imperatives and sacrifices (and indeed the privileges) of activism. But despite its expanded timeframe, the narrative compacts too much into its two acts, and the rich potential of these themes feel underexplored as dramatic detail is elided. “The committed cast do well to fill the gaps. Parry’s matriarchal Gwen is an impassioned foil for Elfyn’s more curmudgeonly, sceptical tendencies. Catrin Aaron as their daughter Claire, with Alfie Llewellyn and a particularly effective Eirlys Lovell-Jones as grandchildren Phillip and Rhiannon sustain a convincing if sometimes inexplicably brusque family dynamic, which Sara Otung as Phillip’s girlfriend Astrid mollifies with a quiet dignity. “Directed by Guy Jones, the production occupies a register that is hesitant to be a documentary but insufficiently figurative to be global. As a result, through its cariads and taids and cwtchs, one feels that Wales is sentimentalised as a timeless land of myths and legends, instead of a modern nation that – like every other country with coastline – will have to make decisions about what to do with climate collapse lapping at its shores.” Abridged, with thanks and acknowledgement, from the full review which can be read at: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/jun/14/atlantis-review-theatr-clwyd-mold |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
This review has been read 83 times There are 130 other reviews of productions with this title in our database:
|
