"The Last Five Years" / "Saturday Night Fever" / "Cheer" / "Frankenstein"

The big cultural news at the moment, locally, is the cancellation, through a bizarre set of circumstances, of the Wales Theatre Awards, about which it would be unwise to pontificate in public. This, added to continuing criticism of National Theatre Wales (I was lucky enough to be one of a group of writers who met with the Arts Council of Wales to discuss this very issue a few weeks ago), seems to paint a picture of a toxic atmosphere. There does seem, however, to be a great deal of solidarity amongst artists, which can only be a good sign in terms of future developments.

In terms of actual theatre-going, I’ve seen two musicals set in New York at the Wales Millennium Centre in the past few weeks: firstly, Leeway Productions’ bold reinvention of Jason Robert Brown’s off-Broadway doomed-relationship drama “The Last Five Years” as a piece inclusive of deaf performers (and audiences), exploiting the theme of mis-communication; and a lavish touring version of “Saturday Night Fever”, with all the grit of the original film, but the Bee Gees music intact.

"Saturday Night Fever" (photo: Pamela Raith)

My first festive show of the season was “Cheer”, from Big Loop at The Other Room – a clever, Orwellian take on Christmas. Then came Cascade Dance Theatre’s “Frankenstein” at Chapter – an exploration of the themes of Mary Shelley’s original, boasting some startling imagery and an excellent, largely electronic score played live.

"Cheers" (photo: Tess Seymour)