WAR HORSE AT THE WMC

Last night, we saw the National Theatre's production, War Horse, based on a novel by Michael Morpugo, and adapted by Nick Stafford, and performed in association with the Handspring Puppet Company at the Wales Milennium Centre. It was an extraordinary production with a fantastic set designed by Rae Smith, a female designer. The puppetry was dexterous and brilliant. If you don't know it, it tells the story of World War 1 from the point of view of the hero- a thoroughbred horse, called Joey who is sent to the Front.
Morpurgo writes in the programme,
'' We still mourn; but now with the benefit of longer hindsight, we see 'the futility' of it all, and 'the pity', as Wilfred Owen wrote. War Horse is not simply a show or a play about war, a horse, and a boy. It is an anthem for peace, and reflects,I think, a universal longing for a world without war."

Although over all I enjoyed it, especially the puppetry, singing and the effects, I did feel the script could have done with substantial editing. Some of the acting was mumbled or shouted and mannered. Germans were stereotyped and some performances over the top. (excuse the pun)  However, there were moments when I did feel engaged, especially at the end when Joey and his owner, the boy Alfred, find each other again. The theme tune lyrics have stayed with me. Something like, 'You will be judged by your actions.'
Wonder how it would go down in Gaza?

The production has been on at the WMC since 18 June and finishes 19 July.
 For further info: wmc.org.uk 029 2063 6464 

FALL OUT 48 & 84

On Tuesday was my birthday and what great one it was. It started with an auspicious birthday present from a passing pigeon. On a walk along the Taff river I caught the turquoise dash of a kingfisher. The first I've seen since the first day out after my hip replacement operation three years ago, or is it four? Then a beautiful bunch of British sunflowers arrived via Interflora from my son living in Switzerland, and a bottle of poison from my daughter touring Canada, and courtesy of John Lewis. That's perfume by the way. One of my favourites. She also sent a card with a picture of a couple in a car that's been driven into a lake and the caption.
 'Oh for God's sake!' snapped Janet. 'Surely you've known me long enough to know I mean right when I say left.'
 Then I attended a meeting of Friends of  Taffs Well Park. They agreed to give me the pavilion free of charge  so that I can start a weekly therapeutic writing group. I'm calling it,'Writers in the Park,' and hoping that local people who've never written before can share their experiences, creativity, memories and have fun. Hopefully, I will be able to put into practice some of the theory I've learnt on the Orchard Foundation's Writing for Well-being course held over several weekends this year. I now just have to write a 3000 word essay to get my certificate for facilitating writing groups. Eek! This year I received a Cardiff University Life Long Learning certificate in Higher Education in Creative Writing. Since 2006 when I started attending creative writing classes I've attended numerous courses that they and others have held. Writing has really enriched my life. Now is my opportunity to bring my two passions together-counselling and creative writing.

All day I got lovely texts and phone calls from family and friends. Thank you! I felt really loved and appreciated. How lucky am I?

Then in the evening, there was the performance of  'Fall Out '84,' Pontardawe Arts Centre's Script Cafe and Neath Port Talbot Young Writers' Squad's community play exploring the impact of the Miners Strike, thirty years on. My piece called, 'Hot Coals', had been sympathetically edited by script editor, Tina Walker and was well  received. The play directed by Derek Cobley, was performed by professional actors. Given they only had five days rehearsal they all did an amazing job. The audience really seemed to like the play overall. It was such fun to be part of. I can't wait for the next project...

And at 9pm, as the sky turned pink, Dan, our friend handed me a bag of his self-speared spider crab and his home-made sausages, Emily gave me a creative writing book, and Rhys and I drove back over the Brecon Beacons. Perrrfect!

MAMETZ

We lined up at the top of the field at Great Llancayo Upper Wood near Usk in Monmouthshire to watch a new National Theatre of Wales(NTW) production-Mametz by Owen Sheers, and directed by Matthew Dunster. The NTW has moved into large site-specific productions based in some interesting places across Wales, including last year, 'The Persians' on Ministry of Defence land in the Brecon Beacons.
    Mametz is based on the memoir of Wyn Griffiths' time as a Staff Officer in World War 1, the experience of David Jones,a writer and artist, and the 38th Division's Battle for Mametz Wood.
    Owen was commisioned by the BBC to produce a film of the battle of Mametz Wood. While he was doing this a war grave was discovered nearby. Twenty British soldiers, probably from a 'Pals' regiment had been buried arm in arm. In response Owen wrote his poem, 'Mametz Wood,'  and from that the play developed. 
   There must have been nearly a thousand people walking through the trenches last Friday. The production used farmland, fields,a barn with sliding doors that looked out onto a wood, and the oak and sycamore wood itself. As sunset glowed a golden light and shadows fell, we were taken through the horrors of that battle and the war. So much human potential wasted. As I watched I thought of all the young men and women who have been used as fodder in war. The bodies lying in Mametz Wood in 1916 could be those dying in wars Iraq, Syria, and the Ukraine in 2014. Have we learnt nothing?

   It's a moving epic production. DON'T MISS IT!  It's on for another week. Contact NTW 029 2035 3070 W.NationaltheatreWales.org. Bookings through the Wales Millenium Centre.

WRITING FOR WELL BEING

This weekend I attended the final weekend of the Orchard Foundation's course,'Writing for Well Being/Therapeutic Writing. The focus was learning the skills of group facilitation with a big emphasis on experiential learning to deliver workshops. Now, all I have to do is a 3000 word essay on the subject and its applications by the end of August! I'm looking forward to doing more reading around the subject. It will be the first academic essay I'm attempted since doing my counselling training nearly twenty years ago, so it will be quite a challenge. I'm hoping to do a one-off taster workshop for colleagues and then put myself out there-on the market- to run workshops for anyone wanting to write for therapeutic reasons. I also hope to give individual counselling clients more opportunities to use writing in our sessions.

 If you think you may be interested please get in touch. You can email me at janetdaniel125@hotmail.com or call on 0750 5024 117

FALL OUT 84 & FALL IN 2014

 My quest to find the Holy Grail through writing continues. Last weekend it was back to Pontardawe Arts Centre for a workshop on a new community play project, lead by Derek Cobley and Tina Walker, based on the Miners strike of 1984 and it's aftermath. This weekend was Level 2 of Writing for Well-being, run by Fiona Hamilton and Nigel Williams of the Orchard Foundation. My aim after Level 3, is eventually to be able to run a well-being group using creative writing.
  This month I've been challenged by Oulipost-part of National Poetry month. I've been trying to write a poem of Found Poetry a day. Cheating a lot on the rules and not making it every day, but an interesting exercise. If you are interested, see my blog, Found Poetry. http://ouliposter.blogspot.co.uk.

TOM :The Story of Tom Jones

The Muni at Pontypridd was packed on Saturday night. He wasn't the real Tom Jones, but by the reception that the show had, he could almost have been. Kit Orton as Tom sang all the great numbers, thrust his pelvis (perhaps a little too often), but had the audience singing their hearts out. Phylip Harries was a great narrator, the musicians playing the Senators were superb. The show is pacy, with a great set design by Sean Crowley, and atmospheric lighting by Ceri James. If you're a fan, don't miss it. It's on tour til May 3 2014. www.theatr-nanog.co.uk

'Theatr na nÓg and their partners RCT Theatres and NPT Theatres are producing a story of Tom
 Jones; born Tommy Woodward; otherwise known as Tommy Scott and The Senators.

This play with live music tells the story of Tom in the early years, before his mega- fame and follows the blossoming talent of the valleys boy who sang in pubs and working men’s clubs up and down the valleys of South Wales. Then came his big break with his first number one hit on St David’s Day in 1965...Its Not Unusual!

Jam-packed with rock n roll hits of the era, played live on stage with a full band, TOM is a show that celebrates an ordinary man with an extraordinary talent.

Written by Mike James, this inspirational tale of incredible self-belief and determination will thrill audiences throughout Wales and beyond. (taken from the website www.theatr-nanog.co.uk)

RETURN OF THE LIGHT

It is Imbolc, the Celtic festival celebrating the day that the land reawakens after winter and the sun and light returns to Earth. But in this year, two thousand and fourteen Mother Earth, Gaia, is under siege. Her death by water torture is her imminent punishment for the sins of her people. At the time of the Winter Solstice, the shortest day, the rain started and it rained continuously for forty days and forty nights as predicted long long ago.

But the builders wouldn't listen. They built on Barrow Mump and on the flood plains of Arthurian legend. They turned their backs on reason and built their dreams on sand. But sand can turn to mud and mud can silt rivers, and rivers can rise, and river water will always find a way of reaching the great seas and oceans. The builders were consumed by their passion for making gold, but were wise enough to build their own homes on higher ground. And fill them with good things to eat and drink.

The skies filled with sadness, seeing the world was nearing its end. They spilt their tears over Gaia, crying over her demise. Branches of birch held their tears at the end of their spindles until they became so heavy that they drooped and could no longer hold on. The tears plopped onto the ground and formed channels of grief. The channels trickled into the streams, and the streams poured into the rivers. In the South and the West the rivers rose. Parrett and Tone, Severn and Thames rose up in angst high above their banks, and looking for ways to escape, they divided, again and again,flowing fast and furious over anything standing in their wake. Kelpies, spirits of water horses, lured people to ride on their backs, tricking them,they drowned their riders and ate them up.

So the flooding and the devastation began. But the builders and their leaders still wouldn't listen or see. They were blind to the suffering of their people, deaf to the distress calls of robins and blackbirds, oblivious to the drowning of otters and foxes, ignored the flooding of fields and forests, the demise of horses and cows, but still they continued to count their gold in coffers on high ridges. But the mountains could no longer hold the glaciers. Gaia was angry and she could no longer hold the world safely in her hands. As the glaciers slipped from her grasp, they melted and joined the rivers in their race for the ocean. The oceans swelled, and their seas grew fuller and fiercer, forming tsunamis. And the tsunamis joined the torment of the torrents backlashing over Mother Earth until there was only salt and acid water, and total misery in our world.

And finally the builders and their leaders listened to the silence of the stillness and saw the devastation and the damage. And they looked into their own torn souls but could find no use for their gold to redeem themselves. So they emptied their pockets and threw their coins up high into the northern skies. And the coins were caught by dancing Fir Chlis, who threw the golden coins across the sky in a streak of dazzling green light to Aurora, the Goddess of the Dawn. And Aurora changing form from crone to maiden mounted the sun and began her journey to return the light back to Mother Earth for the forthcoming Festival of Imbolc. And so the proverb was born, 'What doth it profit a man if he gains the whole world and suffers the loss of his own soul?'

Janet Daniel

February 1^st, Imbolc 2014

KINDERTRANSPORT

This play written by Diane Samuels was first performed on stage in 1993. Her aim was 'to probe the inner life where memory is shaped by trauma, history meets story, in order to gain psychological and emotional insight into how a damaged psyche can survive, possibly recover, and whether there might ever be an opportunity to thrive.'
     She tells the story of a child who is sent to Britain for safe keeping by her Jewish parents the year before the second world war started, and before the start of mass genocide. Over 10,000 children were transported abroad. Many never saw their parents again.
     In Samuel's play the child, Eva, adapts to her new family who embrace her. With no news from her parents for years they assume they have been killed, and Eva settles into life in Manchester. She has nightmares about the Rat catcher, a children's story about the Pied Piper of Hamlin, abducting children.
       Eight years later, Efa's mother turns up having survived the holocaust. But Efa doesn't want to go with her to start a new life in the States. The mother leaves devastated. This for me was the most moving part of the play. Imagine the dilemma of sending your child away in the belief that they will be safe. The child feels punished for being sent away. She would have preferred to have died in a concentration camp than be wrenched from her parents.  In dreams, she sees the Rat catcher in her mother's eyes. Her mother longs to be reunited with her daughter but time and circumstances have changed the daughter's attachment. Her British adoptive mother is now the primary attachment figure.
     Against this story is the story of  Efa's current relationship with her own daughter who is on the verge of leaving home, and their attachment and loss issues, so much influenced by Efa's traumatic childhood.
      The play is very good but this production is disappointing. It feels very clunky, and that may be due to the direction. The set also doesn't really do the play justice. There's lots of scope for a more inventive and atmospheric set, lighting and sound. Perhaps this is why it played to a half empty auditorium at the New Theatre in Cardiff.
It's currently on tour throughout Britain until March 2014.

CIPHERS

'A young woman is found dead. Her sister sets out to find out what happened and stumbles into a world of secrets and subterfuge that makes her ask the question,'How well can you ever know someone who lies for a living?'
We saw this play while it was on at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol. It is an Out of Joint production directed by Blanche McIntyre-the company was founded originally by Max Stafford-Clark. It is on tour nationally and well worth seeing. The script by Dawn King is pacey and provocative with a bit of a surprise ending.  The performances are very good although doubling up roles doesn't always work. Characters don't look sufficiently different with an added scarf or coat. The staging creates tension-sliding panels give the feeling of not knowing quite what might be on the other side. The only downside of this is seeing the performers' shuffling feet!
 Contact 'Out of Joint' for touring schedule.

1984

1984, George Orwell's seminal work about State power, control, and persecution seems as fresh and relevant now as when it was published in 1949, when the world was fragmenting into huge power blocs- USSR,USA & Europe. This production of Headlong Theatre and Nottingham Playhouse adapted and directed by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan, seeks to revive Orwell's ideas that Big Brother is watching us and that the Thought Police know what is going on in our heads. 'It explores the world inside Winston Smith's head, and the world without, and catches the euphoria and bliss buried deep beneath the cold face of Big Brother.'

Playing to a packed audience at the Sherman Theatre, the play sets out to be very provocative and challenging. The torture scene on stage was especially gruesome. Winston tries to become a member of the Brotherhood, opposing Big Brother, but it is all a scam. Winston is tortured and eventually can take no more. He demands that the guards should torture his forbidden lover, anyone but him. 

The set design by Chloe Lamford was outstanding invoking a chilling and unpredictable atmosphere. The use of technology, projection and good lighting all helped create anxiety and fear.

The first half is somewhat slow and wordy, but it really picks up into a tense and powerful piece. Well worth watching. On at Sherman Theatre til the 9th of November 2013.