"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)

Wales Theatre Awards 2017 / Video Portfolio

I attended the Wales Theatre Awards last weekend - held, for the first time, at the Taliesin Theatre on the campus of Swansea University - and wrote it up for the British Theatre Guide. As ever, it was a lively and well-attended event with a celebratory mood in the auditorium, and a wide range of work highlighted across all the genres. Personally, I was pleased to see Cardiff's The Other Room get four awards, and Hijinx win Best Ensemble for "Meet Fred". And the Special Achievement Award went to legendary Welsh tenor Dennis O'Neill, who seemed suitably surprised and delighted.

"Meet Fred" (Hijinx)

Prior to that, I took a useful Cult Cymru training workshop in the use of Wordpress, which enabled me to create a video portfolio page to showcase my short films. Jolly fun.

Wales Theatre Awards / "Henry VI"

Last weekend saw the latest Wales Theatre Awards ceremony at Cardiff’s Sherman Theatre, which I was delighted to attend as part of the judging panel and a representative of the British Theatre Guide. A very well-attended and jolly affair it was too. The Other Room was a big winner, coming away with four awards, but the plaudits were spread quite widely, indicating, once more, the depth of talent in Wales. My write-up of last year’s event was mentioned on-stage, which was rather embarrassing, but no harm done.

Hannah O'Leary as Henry VI (photo:Kirsten McTernan)

Doubtless the production I attended a couple of days ago will receive a lot of votes this year – Shakespeare’s “Henry VI” as abridged and directed by Yvonne Murphy, presented by her Omidaze company, and staged in the usually inaccessible space below the roof of the Wales Millennium Centre. It is a promenade production with a very strong all-female cast, and the lead played by an actress trained in aerialism, thus almost constantly suspended on ropes, reflecting the character’s other-worldliness. Very impressive, if somewhat taxing on both brain and knees.