Elvis Costello / "Macbeth" / "Good Time Girl" / "The Wolf Tattoo"

I was delighted to get a late call to review the gig by Elvis Costello and the Imposters, which was the final show of the Festival of Voice at the Wales Millennium Centre, having been a fan for many years, but unable to afford a ticket. In the event, the show was a triumph – both epic and intimate, with Elvis on excellent form, and well aware of the esteem in which he is held. A rousing and emotional start to my birthday week.

This culminated in a trip to London to catch the final matinee performance of “Macbeth” at the National Theatre, on a Travelex deal. Due to bus troubles, I only made it to the South Bank with half an hour to spare, but managed to relax in time to take in Rufus Norris’ spectacle, featuring powerful performances from Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff. The tone was frenzied, and the look grimy, but the universality of the narrative shone through, and the large, diverse cast delivered the poetry with naturalistic potency.

Other theatrical experiences of the past few weeks were Georgia Coles-Riley’s “Good Time Girl”, part of the Cardiff Fringe Theatre Festival, a very involving one-woman play themed around Body Dysmorphic Disorder; and Lucy Gough’s “The Wolf Tattoo” from Company of Sirens at Chapter, a surreal and intriguing piece using lycanthropy myths to explore the journey into responsible adulthood.

The Wolf Tattoo (pic: J. H. Andersen)

"Lovecraft" / "Five Green Bottles"

It’s a busy couple of weeks in Cardiff, for those interested in performance. The biennial Festival of Voice, produced by the Wales Millennium Centre is attracting stars of the magnitude of Elvis Costello, Patti Smith and Laura Marling, but there’s also a lot going on in terms of smaller scale, theatrical events. Thus I went to see “Lovecraft (Not The Sex Shop In Cardiff)”, a poppy musical take on the science of relationships written and performed by Carys Eleri. Great fun, and, one would hope, sure to attract attention when it plays in Edinburgh, come Festival time.

"Lovecraft"

Then, as well as the brilliant Young Artists’ Festival at The Other Room (to which I paid a highly enjoyable visit as a punter this year, having participated as a director last year), there is the Cardiff Fringe Theatre Festival, in which a lot of small companies take over non-traditional venues. So, it was downstairs at the Little Man Coffee bar that I saw “Five Green Bottles”, a new play which started out as a dark take on the 1960s sexual revolution and got still darker; it’s a piece which certainly deserves to be seen again.