EDINBURGH FESTIVALS 2012

 It's festival time again and I've just got back from a literary feast in Edinburgh. Here's a brief round up of the shows I saw at the Fringe, the International and Book Festivals. First the serious stuff:

• 'Krapp's Last Tape' by Samuel Beckett and directed by Fiona Baddeley, featuring Tom Owen (from 'Last of the Summer Wine'). An old man listens to recordings he's made over the past forty years reflecting on his life and relationships and prepares to make his final tape. It's a very moving and sad play and was brilliantly performed.

• 'The Fantasist' by Theatre Temoin & Cie Traversiere. The play explores 'the murky depths and glorious heights of bipolar illness through a stunning collision of puppetry, physical theatre and original music.' I came out of this one reeling; it was so powerful. Again, brilliantly performed, with the puppets adding a surreal and disturbing quality to the story.

• 'And No More Shall We Part' by Tom Holloway, directed by James MacDonald and co-starring Bill Patterson as Don and Dearbhla Molloy as Pam, performed at the Traverse Theatre. The play 'looks at what happens when death comes into the room.' Pam has a terminal illness and plans to end her life. Don doesn't want her to, but she needs his help. The story raises ethical issues about a person's individual rights and autonomy and the impact of euthanasia on their partners. The performances were so convincing that audience members were bawling and hugging each other as they left the theatre.

• 'Gullivers Travels' by Jonathan Swift  performed by the National Theatre of Romania. We'd seen their amazing production of 'Faust' a few years ago and perhaps were expecting too much. It's a very visual production with great imagery and set, a wonderful avant-rock score and huge ensemble, even featuring a live stallion on stage. However, not knowing the intricacies of the story I was often lost and confused. Gave us lots to talk about though.

It was a relief to see some comedy interspersed. This included:

• Shappi Korshandi, an Iranian stand-up comedienne with stories of her filthy sex life
• Jarlath Regan, an Irish stand-up comedian with a show, entitled,'The Audacity of Hope and The Inspirational Stupidity of Perseverance.' Funny, but seemed a bit mild after Shappi.
• John Shuttleworth, a Yorkshire comedian/storyteller trying to play the organ with a show described as, 'weird,whimsical and wacky'. His followers were in hysterics at every throwaway remark. There was one song about the tragedy of having two margarine cartons open in the fridge at the same time. I'm now a follower.
• The Dog-Eared Collective's new show,'You're Amazing. (Now Look At Me)  ' Fast, physical, funny and surreal sketches of their world.  They are all great performers, but couldn't take my eyes off the versatile Joanna Hutt. Partly because she looks the spitting image of her mother as a younger woman.  And partly because her mother was sitting next to me.

Other shows included:

• 'Julia Donaldson's Children's Show ' Julia acted and sang her stories against an illustrated backdrop, accompanied by her husband, other actors and children from the audience. Stories included The 'Highway Rat', 'Paper Dolls' and 'The Gruffalo', performed in the Scots language. Over 600 children and their parents sat enthralled. Including us.

• 'The Big Bite-Size Breakfast'  We had Menu 1: 'Vintage 1940's, which included strawberries,croissants,coffee and four very clever short plays by Lucy Kaufman on the theme of Vintage. 

• 'Chapel Street,'by Luke Barnes.  This was part of the Old Vic's New (meaning 'young') Voices programme. The play was performed as two interweaving monologues telling the individual stories of the teenagers' drunken Friday night out and the aspirations of a disaffected generation. Clever writing and excellent performances by Cary Crankson and Ria Zmitrowicz.

There was also a lot of eating, imbibing, strolling, meeting friends, chatting and soaking up the rush. If you have never been to the Edinburgh Festival, you really should. You'd love it!

PS I slept for a solid thirteen hours afterwards.

TORCHBEARERS

'Torchbearers' is a Valleys Kids and Wales Millenium Centre Co-production-the result of a long standing partnership with South African artists and community arts organisations. It is part of Wales' Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival.
    
The programme describes it as,
     ' a spectacular cross-cultural performance, which celebrates the extraordinary achievements of      Valleys Kids and their inspirational creative partners in Wales and South Africa. Together, they are   succeeding in changing the lives of disadvantaged individuals in their communities through engaging them in the arts'.

We went to see the show on Friday to a packed auditorium. The show is highly ambitious with a cast of what seems like hundreds-South African dancers, actors, gymnasts, actors, singers and musicians-mixed in with singers, actors, dancers, musicians and young people from Valleys' communities. It is a love story of a South African girl and Welsh boy, who meet on the film set of 'Zulu' at the time Nelson Mandela is imprisoned. They are now old reminiscing about those days.

The production is awesome and it almost seems disloyal to be at all critical as I'm a great fan of Valleys Kids since I worked with Richard Morgan and Margaret Jervis, thirty odd years ago at Rhondda Community Arts and what was then Penygraig Community Project.  I loved the African input-it was so professional and slick, I was moved by the dancing, the music score by Paula Gardiner is inspiring and the singing fantastic. The production is energetic with a great set designed by Mary Drummond. For me a weakness lies in the script by Laurence Allen. It isn't always clear and at times I found it confusing and repetitive. The casting of a mixed race South African, seemingly representing the old Welsh man as the young boy was confusing. This wasn't helped by some poor sound, although given I was having problems with my own hearing at the time, it could have been me.  However, apart from that it is an amazing achievement.
It's going to be performed at Artscape Theatre in Cape Town on November 8,9.10 2012. Well worth the airfare!

THE EXHIBITIONISTS

The Exhibitionists is a BBC Cymru Wales series, a collaboration with Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, followed five individuals with no formal art background as they were set a series of tasks, the first time ever a museum has allowed such extraordinary access to its important art collection for members of the public to handle, discuss, and put on show.

Helping them along the way have been two figures in the Welsh art world. Osi Rhys Osmond is a highly respected Welsh painter and a Senior Lecturer of Art at Swansea Metropolitan University. Karen MacKinnon is Exhibitions Curator at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea.

As finalists, Efa Thomas, a musician and Cardiff journalism student originally from Criccieth, and Julia Manser a charity sector worker and keen Swansea City FC follower, were given their own exhibitions in the National Museum's new wing for modern and contemporary art, Gallery 24. Those visiting the gallery were asked to vote for their favorite exhibition. Efa received the most public votes with her theme of destruction and identity.


We really enjoyed the series- a bit of a cross between Masterchef and the Apprentice. The contestants were all very different, coming from a range of backgrounds and ages. In some ways they were all winners, because what was asked of them would have been challenging to those with a knowledge of art and art history. None of the contestants had any art background. We've often thought that the Museum has been rather conservative in its curation, although there are exciting exceptions, such as the bi-annual international Artis Mundi. We'd heard that there are storerooms holding treasures which the public never get to see. Until the recent extensions at the Museum, contemporary collections in my view didn't have a lot of coherence and were displayed in poor light. I found them depressing. But the new exhibition rooms shine great light on older and new work.  And when was the last time you saw an exhibition of  women's art there? Well, there's one on now!
We were eager to see the exhibition and last Friday on entering the Museum we caught sight of Julia Manser, the runner-up, whose theme for the competition was women. I approached her and told her we'd made a special journey. She'd just given a talk (we didn't know about it) but said she'd do it again just for us. We were given seats by the warden and sat down while Julia warmly and enthusiastically explained the reasons for her choices and gave background to the lives of artists such as Gwen John, Sue Williams, and Siani Rhys Jones, to name a few. She's clearly learnt an enormous amount and enjoyed the whole experience. She brings a fresh, personal and enthusiastic heart and mind to her selection. Her captions are witty and some made me laugh out loud. Not  the stuffy way the Museum may do it. Efa's selection is very different-her themes are destruction and identity, with works by Ifor Davies, Iwan Bala and more contemporary, younger, less known artists.  She brings the same fresh creativity to her curation.  I really hope that the Museum will learn how much more accessible that makes our experience. Because of the tight time scales of the series, there's no catalogue available yet. 

The exhibitions can be seen at the National Museum Cardiff until August 19. Efa is giving a talk about her selection on Tuesday 14th August at 2pm. and the pieces of art can be seen on the Your Paintings website. The series is produced by Gwynedd-based Cwmni Da TV company.

Watch the last episode on iPlayer.

GREEN CANTERBURY TALES

This week I met up with a small group of women poets, writers and storytellers who want to take up the challenge to 'Walk for the Earth.' Our group,'Seeds of Inspiration', involves a kind of pagan pilgrimage to sacred sites, which we will circumnavigate at Beltane, the Summer Solstice and Lammas, before joining others at the Confest in Canterbury in September 2013. We'll be having conversations, gathering and telling stories and maybe even performing our work on green themes-if we can find venues.  Below is more information about the project. If you would like to start a seed group of your own and join  Walk for the Earth see www.greencanterburytales.co.uk.

"Storytellers, poets, musicians, artists and those concerned about the state of our world. You are invited to gather in your localities around Britain to make a story pilgrimage across the country towards Canterbury.  We will walk, cycle, ride and use other forms of slow travel, declaring our care for the world through storytelling, poetry and music.

Starting in May 2013 we will converge on Canterbury in September 2013, celebrating our journeys with a conference-festival (Confest). This will be a 21st century Canterbury Tales on a sustainability theme: A WALK FOR THE EARTH.

We want this pilgrimage to be a positive affirmation of the power of the spoken word. Stories of people alive now will mingle with tales of old to honour both traditional roots and contemporary shoots. We will reach out to diverse groups of people. We will learn once more to love this venerable land, to move through it along highways and byways with a sense of adventure, respect and appreciation.

We want to keep asking ourselves and each other: ‘What matters? What can we do? How do we live?’ We want to give voice to the low impact, Earth-friendly, human scale, creative and courageous alternative to all that is corrupt and dysfunctional in mainstream culture. We are inspired by the thought of hundreds (if not thousands) of people from all over Britain walking simultaneously, as if along spokes of a wheel, and converging on an ancient sacred centre to celebrate simple yet immensely rich journeys." (www. greencanterburytales.com)

SCOTLAND,THE DRY

Who would have believed it? Three weeks holidaying in Scotland and no rain. Well, a couple of times it did rain, but we were en route for our ferries so it didn't stop play. Scotland in late May/ June was truly magnificent. On the Solway Coast, in the South we stayed at a caravan park that had been awarded a David Bellamy gold star. Set in woodland, the Hawthorn trees were in full bloom, looking as if a giant had poured double cream from a pitcher all over the woodland. Or, as I heard one child ask his mother,'Is that a snow tree?'
      This area is called the Scottish Riviera, and with its pretty villages and beaches it's easy to see why. It's a very undiscovered part of the country. Most people head north after Gretna Green. It's worth turning left and spending a few days strolling along the coastal paths and through the forests and woodland. The towns are uncrowded. Kirkcudbright (Kir-coo-bri) is our favourite. People are very friendly, the stone cottages with vaulted alleyways leading to pretty gardens are charming. Its good light encourages artists to settle and exhibit there.
      Driving north through Dumfries and Galloway and then Ayrshire, we took the ferry from Ardhossan to the Isle of Arran, where we ate kippers for breakfast and had a view over Holy Island, where there is a centre for world peace. Unfortunately, the winds were too strong for the wee ferry, so instead we walked to the cave, where Robert the Bruce was said to have had an encounter with a spider, which inspired him to carry on his campaign to free Scotland from English reign.
     Arran is said to be Scotland in miniature, with rich lowland pastures in the South and intimidating mountains in the North. It is quite wealthy and as one of the nearer islands to Glasgow has a lot of visitors.  From Arran we took the ferry from Lochanza in the North to Claonaig on Kyntyre. Driving down to Carradale in Mid Kintyre we were able to view the mountains of Arran in late evening light from the opposite shore. Set against the mauvey-pink rhododendrons that dominate Kintyre's landscape, the scene was magical.
        We stayed in a log cabin, that was somewhat dog-eared but in a great location- a holiday park set just behind a long sandy beach with forest walks. There I made a basic mistake, wearing three quarter length trousers on a forest walk. I counted 24 love bites from the mighty midge-and that was just on my right leg between foot and calf. Must be something about the plumpness of a female calf that midges go wild for. Rhys didn't have a single bite. Then, he was completely covered up. Repellent must be in short supply and expensive, because someone nicked my leaky one, left by the car during another walk. Midges love hot humid places and are pretty rampant from June to August. We bought midge masks-mine in pink and Rhys's in black, that look like see-through balaclavas. The sort of thing Michael Jackson made his children wear on visits to the zoo in New York. On a guided walk through the gardens at Inverewe in the North West Highland the whole group was wearing midge masks. We looked like we were at some kind of weird gathering of the clans.
        We did the obligatory homage to the Mull of Kinytre, made famous by Paul Macartney and Wings, but after a few miles of one-track roads on the edge of a cliff with mist rolling in, we headed back to the safety of our log cabin.
         Carradale is a great place to island hop and we hopped over to the little island of Gigha (Gee-ya), twenty minutes from Tayinloan in mid Kintyre. It's owned by its tiny community, seems fairly prosperous and has the beautiful gardens of Achamore. This part of Scotland, the West coast and Hebridean islands are washed by the warm waters of the Atlantic Gulf Stream, so there are many gardens donated by hard-up Lairds or their descendents to the National Trust of Scotland(NTS) and open to the public.  The NTS has reciprocal arrangements with the National Trust of England and Wales, so if you're a Welsh member who thinks (like us) it's hardly worth the annual subscription because of the paucity of properties and gardens in Wales, it's worth being a member to take advantage of these Scottish paradises. Unfortunatel, Achamore isn't NTS.
        From Kennacraig, a little further north on Kintyre, we made the two hour trip to the Island of Islay(Isla) -The Whisky Isle. There are at least seven distilleries making single malts and blended varieties from raw materials supplied from the mainland and using local peat in the maltings to produce the characteristic smoky elixir. Distilleries give guided tours and tastings for brands such as Laphroaig (Prince Charles' favourite apparently-not that I'm interested), Lagavulin, Caol(Cil) Ila. In late May there's a whisky festival, much loved by Italians,Germans, Americans and Swedes. Our landlady said it's a wild time to come. And we just missed it.
        From Kintyre we drove ten hours up to the North West Highlands. At Ballachulish between Oban and Fort William we accidently managed to get behind the Olympic torch procession. The crowd thinking we were part of the support team, I guess, cheered us on with their Coca-Cola and Samsung drum kits. It was a relief to lose them at Fort William. There's only so much regal waving a couple in a Kia Rio can do, and concentrate on the driving.
        We stayed in Aultbea in a lodge with a wonderful view of Loch Ewe and the spiky range of the Torridon mountains.  Loch Ewe was a top secret place in WW11. It was the mustering HQ for the Arctic Convoys taking supplies to Russia. My uncle was on one of those convoys and I'm keen to learn more. Sadly, he died before I had the chance to ask the right questions.
        We walked around lochs, more gardens, cycled, and walked to a lighthouse. We got a lift back with an ex-army couple, who'd been travelling for two years in their souped up jeep with their cat. I'm not a great fan of cats, to say the least. I sat frozen in the passenger seat in case the cat should take a walk over my back and attempt to sit on my lap. If I screamed our driver might topple over the cliff. Thankfully, the cat and I behaved ourselves.
        

CAMILLE O SULLIVAN'S 'CHANGELING'

 Saturday night at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and Irish-French performer Camille O Sullivan descended the staircase in a sparkly 'Red Riding Hood' cloak to sound bites from darker fairy stories.  Through the narrative songs of Jacque Brel, Nick Cave, Bob Dylan,Tom Waits and others, she took her audience on an emotional journey to her surreal world decked out in rosy lights and inhabited by a glowing rabbit lampstand, a discarded horse head, hanging ball gowns, a wind up bird in a cage, Tom Waits in a suitcase, and a dusty book of spells. And her band,'The Singing Bird' of course.
   The Daily Telegraph wrote,'When she sings it's as though her breath is soaked in paraffin;one spark,and the whole room would ignite.'
   I'd been lucky enough to see her show, 'Changeling' at the Edinburgh Festival last year where it was a sell out. Her Cardiff gig came towards the end of a long tour that clearly had affected her voice, giving it more rawness than I'd remembered. She jumped around the stage like a rabbit, a tiger, a pussy cat, meiowing to her audience while removing layers of her black lacy outfit once hidden beneath her red cloak. And she sang! Songs with stories that intrigued, puzzled, moved,challenged,amused, saddened, and entertained. 'Art songs' exploring the seedier side of life, desolation in love, politics,sexuality, life's degenerates, a celebration of madness and vulerability.
    Her show is on tour til June1,  For further information about this amazing performer and wonderful singer see www.camilleosullivan.com.

JOHN PIPER & THE IRANIANS

 It's probably a first- John Piper and the Iranians together in one sentence. They came together for us last weekend in visiting two separate exhibitions. John Piper, known most famously for his massive stained glass window at Coventry Cathedral, also painted the mountains of Wales. The National Museum currently has an exhibition of these paintings on show until May 13. His use of light is sometimes compared to Turner. After seeing the explosion of colour and light through his window the previous weekend, most of these paintings appear dull and drab in comparison. After a failed first marriage, he married a Welsh woman and lived in North Wales and Pembrokeshire but painted landscapes in Mid Wales too. The paintings of the North Wales landscape are more interesting- full of weather and atmosphere, high rocky edifices plunging into deep black pools.  Splashes of light thrill the eye and the imagination as you walk around the room.
      The Ffotogallery in Penarth currently has a 'must see' exhibition on until May 12. Entitled.'Bi Nam' it is the first show in the UK representing the work of a group of contemporary Iranian photographers.  The photographic and video content explore the cultural and social life of modern Iran with an emphasis on religion, gender and identity. At the preview the staff had run out of time to put the names of the photographers by their work and in the catalogue photographers' gender was not mentioned. As most of the work focused on women's experience and this show is about identity, it would have been interesting to have known the artists' gender. Do men portray Iranian women in this exhibition differently from the way women portray themselves? I would have liked to have some insight. The photos and video are very beautiful. There's a lovely series of women's faces from their noses to their necks, with the focus on the knot of their scarf and the hollow of their neck. I also really enjoyed a video of a woman dressing to go to market as we follow her around her home, and then as if the camera is a child holding onto her coat tail, we follow her around the market as she shops. But many of the photos left me feeling sad-images of loneliness, of empty days locked in the house, women as prisoners in their own homes, observers of life outside.

CLYTEMNESTRA

Last night we saw a new adaptation of the Greek classic, 'Clytemnestra' at the Sherman Theatre. The adaptation is by Gwyneth Lewis, who was the National Poet of Wales 2005-06. Her words are in English and Welsh on the front of the Wales Millenium Centre in six-foot-high letters,'In these stones horizons sing'. It is rumoured to be the largest poem in the world.
      Gwyneth's poetry sings through the play set in the near future in a world where oil has run out and the world fights for food. Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter, Iphigenia to his barbaric new allies. With the anger and grief of a mother betrayed, Clytemnestra seeks revenge.  She is plagued by the 'Furies'-described in the programme as,
       ' the ancient psychic force that demands avenging family murder. These figures have a primitive relationship with language, respond to impulse' ... 'the beat before rational thought'. . . 'but gain embodiment and change the more they are listened to. They start as pre-linguistic and prefigurative and as the revenge idea develops, they come to resemble fully formed characters. When a character assents to them, they give that character a superhuman drive.  They're the precursors and sponsors of poetic language.'
      Unfortunately, these moaning, crawling, rolling, licking creatures, for me, became a distraction and irritation from the central characters, whose actors displayed their angst, doubts and impulses brilliantly without the need for the 'Furies' vampire-like excesses. I wonder if this was an interpretation in the direction of Amy Hodge rather than Gwyneth Lewis's writing.
       Jaye Griffiths is absolutely compelling as Clytemnestra. I couldn't take my eyes of her on stage. There are great performances by the whole ensemble.  The futuristic multi-levelled set by designer, Takis, is superb- located in an abattoir with props that double for the family home, and lit dramatically by lighting designer, Lee Curran.
      But it is the ending of the play that really takes your breadth away.   Agamemnon, played by Nick Ross, is murdered in a revenge attack by Clytemnestra, who is clearly turned on and become insane by the blood letting. In the light we see Agamemnon hanging from the ceiling on a chain, bound and suspended by his feet like a slaughtered animal. As the rest of the action played out and minutes past, I began to worry about all that blood rushing to his head. At the curtain call he didn't appear straight away. The other actors kept looking over their shoulders for him. I don't know if it was done deliberately, but it worked. The whole audience giggled nervously and sighed with relief when he eventually appeared to take his place and great applause.
  

THE FATHER & OTHER DRAMAS

  On Saturday we went up to Coventry to see a new version of Strindberg's play, 'The Father' by Laurie Slade at the Belgrade Theatre. I met Laurie on an Arvon writing course in November 2010 and was keen to see his play and give support along with several other ex-Arvonites.
         The play explores the claustrophobia of a long marriage and the power struggles and trust issues that go with it. Laurie wanted to bring something fresh and dynamic to the original and he is very successful in doing this.  Tension builds from the opening scene, it never palls and the ending is shocking.  Joe Harmston directs an excellent team of actors, many RSC old hands. Joe Dixon plays the Captain and Katy Stephens his wife, Laura. In the programme he says,"My acid test is 'will people leave the theatre with questions?'...I hope people will leave arguing about how they feel about what they've seen." The ex-Arvonites certainly did that.  At the Bella Pasta we chewed over the nature of madness, fidelity, seduction and sex in the relationship, the use of an only child to play out power struggles, the expected roles of husband and wife in the 1880's, and the role of Laura in the Captain's descent into an eventual mental breakdown.
      As if we hadn't had enough drama for one night, at 3.30am we were sleeping soundly at our Premier Inn when we were awoken suddenly by a high pitched screeching drone. I bolted out of bed, thinking it was the TV and Rhys fumbled about looking for the on/off button. It wasn't the TV. It was the fire alarm. I grabbed Rhys's shirt and he got up on the bed waving it madly underneath the ceiling alarm as if he were trying to tame smoke from burning bacon in our kitchen. No luck. Still semi-comatose we opened the hotel door of our room to see guests in various states of undress marching resolutely towards the staircase. I don't normally wear anything in bed, but luckily on this occasion I was wearing a shorty nightdress bought at the time of my hip replacement. With some difficulty I pulled on my only footwear- laced ankle booties and grabbed my priorities- denture, handbag and mobile phone. Rhys put on a pair of trousers and out we trooped; into a crystal cold night to join a hundred or so others shivering in their nightclothes or quilted jackets depending on their foresight. No information and no staff visible.
        The following morning we found out that it had been someone smoking in their room. One member of staff had been trying to wake a party of profoundly deaf while the other dealt with the culprit. No staff available to deal with the rest of us. The culprit's punishment? A lifetime ban from Premier Inns. Our reward? The guarantee of a full refund when you don't get a good night's sleep. Bingo!
         With all these visuals in mind, it was apt that Pontardawe Script Cafe's speaker this month was Elen Bowman on 'Thinking in Pictures'. Elen is a RADA and Stanislavsky trained actress and director and has advised The Royal Court Theatre on the Russian's methodology. She is directing The Tempest with Teater Genedlaethol (The Welsh language National Theatre of Wales) later this year. She work-shopped a play, 'Mrs Pink Power Ranger' by a new member, Geraint Desmond, and helped us consider how to build the visual world of our play through the characters.  A stimulating evening.
      
        

'SORRY' IN PONTARDAWE & OTHER SORRIES

This week we launched our joint exhibition of art work and poetry,'Sorry I don't eat fish' on the theme of climate change and a celebration of the natural world at Pontardawe Arts Centre with a wine reception and an open mike poetry session. About 50 people attended and a number of poets read their work. Two people sang, one of whom had composed and written a song himself. Some poets had produced work at a workshop led by Susan Richardson, Eco-Poet with Radio 4's 'Saturday Live' and organised by Awel Aman Tawe for a competition on the theme of climate change to be judged by Carol Ann Duffy, the British Poet Laureate. Profits on sales of Rhys's work will be donated to the trust representing families affected by the Gleision Colliery disaster. On the evening we made about 150 pounds on prints and catalogues and are hoping that this amount will increase by the end of the exhibition, the 20th of April 2012. If you are interested in buying an original the Arts Centre can offer Collectorplan, an interest-free credit service to help people buy contemporary art and craft in Wales. Originals range from 100-200 pounds.
       Other events at Pontardawe in March included attendance at a scriptwriting weekend workshop organised by Script Cafe and led by Louise Osborn on issue-based playwriting. Louise is a very experienced writer and director, who I first met over twenty years ago when she was an actor with Theatre Powys. She inspired me to start writing a new play that I'd been thinking about for some time, its working title, 'Crisis of Confidence' a love story set in Tent City during the' Occupy London' protests this winter. The first five minutes were read at Script Cafe's open mike session and I had helpful feedback. 'Mess up the Mess', a youth theatre group joined us to read their own and our plays. Some of our members had written pieces especially for younger people. Their involvement was refreshing and we hope to invite them back again sometime soon.
        The Sherman Theatre in Cardiff re-opened after renovations. There's a clinical new entrance hall that needed filling. The Artistic team invited writers on their data base to submit plays no longer than a page to decorate the walls. I submitted five plays but after some searching I could only find one laminated and left on a table for easy reading. Plays are strung from bars on ribbons resembling fly-catching paper, way out of reading sight unless you're a stilt walker. Others are printed in pale orange and green and pasted on pillars. A good idea to promote playwriting but in presentation appears tacky and somewhat dismissive of our efforts. One new bonus is that 'Writers nights' offer concessions on ticket prices and a free drink. It's the team's plan to pick their favourite plays-on-a-page and paste them on their website.
        However, we did see three very good plays there in the past month. Pity that the renovations didn't run to more comfy seats in the smaller theatre but that didn't stop us enjoying Greg Cullen's new play 'Muscle'.  I first met Greg when he worked as writer with Theatre Powys and did some work with Spectacle Theatre. 'Muscle' has an all male cast and through a series of personal stories tells us with great energy, pathos and humour what it's like to be a man.
       Kate Tempest's debut play,'Wasted', is the story of three old friends coming to terms with loss, love and struggling to find meaning in life. Much of the action was rapped to an exhilarating score. This young performance poet, rapper and playwright is a talent to watch. The Paines Plough production was excellent.
      The third production in the comfortable larger theatre was absolutely outstanding. 'Lovesong', by Abi Morgan with Sian Phillips in a leading role, tells the story of an older couple reflecting on their younger lives together. It is one of the most moving plays I've seen for a long time. There was a lot of sniffing going on in the audience. It is beautifully written and produced with clever surprises, such as a disappearance through the double bed, the actors reappearing out of the fridge or the wardrobe, and the old couple and their younger selves dancing around each other with poise and elegance.
       The only disappointment was Peter Gill's adaptation of Chekhov's,  'A Provincial Life.' It was so boring that we left at the interval.
       On Friday night Rhys sang with his 'singing for the natural voice' group at an event to raise money for Water Aid, led by their tutor, Laura Bradshaw. This sorry goes to the penny whistle players who may have been distracted by the laughter from the back of the hall as my friend and I did a French and Saunders type impersonation of Irish dancing. Or as one woman said, 'You remind me of Morecambe and Wise.' I really must lay off that Taffy Cider.