Rachel rosen's Posts - National Theatre Wales Community2024-03-29T12:50:27Zrachel rosenhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/rachelrosenhttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2986252861?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profiles/blog/feed?user=3ma935upoa7v7&xn_auth=noMy Body Welsh - Critical Chinwag - the local universaltag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2017-02-02:3152760:BlogPost:2629152017-02-02T11:21:01.000Zrachel rosenhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/rachelrosen
This play was so good I went to see it twice.<br />
The second time I brought along a few ntw TEAM members (existing and new) to share the experience and have a 'critical chinwag' afterwards.<br />
There were lots of things I liked about the play, from its gentle wit to its highly animated protagonist, the wonderful use of props also as doubling as ingenious sound devices, and a refreshingly confident approach to bilinguality that wasn't laboured.<br />
<br />
My Body Welsh throws us into the sensations and…
This play was so good I went to see it twice.<br />
The second time I brought along a few ntw TEAM members (existing and new) to share the experience and have a 'critical chinwag' afterwards.<br />
There were lots of things I liked about the play, from its gentle wit to its highly animated protagonist, the wonderful use of props also as doubling as ingenious sound devices, and a refreshingly confident approach to bilinguality that wasn't laboured.<br />
<br />
My Body Welsh throws us into the sensations and sensibilities of a young man whilst he unravels the tale of a skeleton found in a well. The solving of this mystery creates the main arc of the piece, but along the way it follows a watery theme through various meanders, diversions, spills and reflections giving us thoughtful asides, wry commentaries and stories within stories that build to something more than the small town tale it appears to be.<br />
<br />
Making a series of hilarious parallels (between his own body and that of the skeleton, the betrayal of his Mabinogi forebears and his own ill-fated crush on local girl Gwen, the tragic tale of Gelert the dog with his own leapt-to conclusions), he slid effortlessly in and out of both languages, local jokes and current affairs, seeming to inhabit all the contradictions and angst of youth complete with its melodramas and obsessions. it felt like such welcome honesty.<br />
<br />
Embarrassed, frightened, righteous, thoughtful, mischievous, curious, courageous, confused, angry, excited, deflated, frustrated, fascinated, amused, bemused...<br />
<br />
One of the totally unique aspects of this piece was its amazingly inventive array of sound effects and physical props, all provided from a selection of pots pans and other assorted vessels lying around on the stage. They look pretty fun, yet there is something disarmingly magical about the way that Steffan Donnelly, co-creator and performer of the piece, transforms each item into anything from lakes and seas, to emotions and bodily functions, and with a few bits of technical wizardy provided by his accomplice Jordan Mallory-Skinner, an innocent dabbling of a water surface one minute became an epic and eerie soundscape the next. So simple but quite fantastic.<br />
<br />
On the flip side of these sound echoes was the relative lack of repetition between the two spoken languages - instead there was a wonderfully fluid mix of both English and Welsh which just worked. I was very struck by this aspect of the play when I first saw it, and it was interesting the second time round because as a group we spanned the full range of Welsh fluency from none to first langauge and we still all enjoyed the play and the flow of language immensely. One of our party reflected that at drama school he had worked with people from all over the world and it barely mattered what language they spoke on stage. But there was also something clever in how language wove a rich cloth of familiar cultural signifiers and was used to both illustrate and challenge ideas of identity, ownership and truth.<br />
<br />
The play did all of this without a trace of pomposity, somehow being gentle but sharp, inventive and funny all at once. The 'tall skinny Welshman' as he introduced himself, gave us tall tales and thin facts, played with our eyes and ears, shifted shapes and wrangled identity, and along with all the fun of stories and sounds and water and wonderings, he splashed a few tricky questions our way.<br />
<br />
These are talented guys and I would love to see what happens if this show were to tour further afield. For all that it felt so local it was so very much more.My Body Welsh - Critical Chinwag @Galeri Caernarfontag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2017-01-19:3152760:BlogPost:2621462017-01-19T12:55:36.000Zrachel rosenhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/rachelrosen
Would you like the chance to see a piece of current theatre for free and join a group of us in the bar afterwards for a chat about it?<br />
<br />
Critical Chinwag is a really fun way to get a bit more out of theatre, and National Theatre Wales TEAM are supporting us to run one of these at Galeri Caernarfon next week around the fantastic one-man show 'My Body Welsh'.<br />
All you have to do is get in touch with me and say you'd like to join us. We only have a limited number of tickets so be quick! If you'd…
Would you like the chance to see a piece of current theatre for free and join a group of us in the bar afterwards for a chat about it?<br />
<br />
Critical Chinwag is a really fun way to get a bit more out of theatre, and National Theatre Wales TEAM are supporting us to run one of these at Galeri Caernarfon next week around the fantastic one-man show 'My Body Welsh'.<br />
All you have to do is get in touch with me and say you'd like to join us. We only have a limited number of tickets so be quick! If you'd like to come but are unsure about how to get there, please let me know that too... Then come along next week, watch, enjoy, join our chinwag and write up a short blog style piece for us!<br />
<br />
I've taken part in a few myself and enjoyed them so much I'm hosting this one.<br />
My Body Welsh is a great bit of innovative storytelling - and much more besides. You don't need to be a welsh speaker to understand it either. So come and see for yourself - Thursday 26th January.And another... Hi! I'm a new TEAM panel membertag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2017-01-09:3152760:BlogPost:2614522017-01-09T12:34:39.000Zrachel rosenhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/rachelrosen
So it looks like I am now part of the National Theatre Wales TEAM panel! It's lovely to be asked to be part of this dynamic and future thinking organisation and I really hope I can do my bit in helping NTW be even more relevant, better connected and National than ever.<br />
<br />
If you haven't already come across me I have been involved in NTW TEAM for a couple of years now, with critical chinwags, live blogs, skill swaps, designing and devising for performance parties and generally checking out our…
So it looks like I am now part of the National Theatre Wales TEAM panel! It's lovely to be asked to be part of this dynamic and future thinking organisation and I really hope I can do my bit in helping NTW be even more relevant, better connected and National than ever.<br />
<br />
If you haven't already come across me I have been involved in NTW TEAM for a couple of years now, with critical chinwags, live blogs, skill swaps, designing and devising for performance parties and generally checking out our community. Take a look at my previous blog posts here, I also hope to write up some wider thoughts and experiences that might be relevant to you - or that you would like someone to write about, I'm always open to suggestions.<br />
<br />
I have a particular North Wales perspective on the arts and culture sector in Wales - our region is full of amazingly talented and creative people yet most of the organisations that support us or we are interested in are 'down south'. You can't change sheer weight of population but we can all do our best to make sure that the North is well connected and visible. This is something I particularly want to work on in my time on Panel.<br />
I am also a visual artist, crossing over into theatre design and collaborating with many kinds of performers. I hope that this also enriches the breadth and approaches that NTW can draw on. Personally I have found the world of theatre a more inclusive and welcoming one than the art world can be, I also feel that theatre and related performative and interventionist art forms can reach out to communities in ways that 'fine' art often struggles to. I am involved in immersive theatre including periodical work with a sensory theatre group called Theatr Dan Y Coed, and my activities have delved into surprising and deeply rewarding issues including mental health and the environment. I don't think there is any limit to where art and theatre can go.<br />
<br />
As a passionate advocate of the value of creativity in communities I would be very proud to help build on the fantastic work that NTW and its associates have done across Wales in the last few years - and beyond. I am excited for the future!<br />
My first job is to get myself more visible and start listening to you all. What would make a difference to you as a member of our creative community?<br />
Here's to a positive, against the odds 2017...Comfort in the infinite - Light Waves Dark Skies (critical chinwag)tag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2016-12-08:3152760:BlogPost:2604602016-12-08T20:30:00.000Zrachel rosenhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/rachelrosen
For my second critical chinwag outing I found myself travelling to Cardiff and my first visit to the Chapter Arts Centre in some years. And what a great small arts centre success story it is! It was great to be back.<br />
The play is another micro success story - it started out as a National Theatre Wales 'Waleslab' project, which means that it was initially an exploratory project supported by NTW's creative development policy for new talent and project seeding. From there it has continued to…
For my second critical chinwag outing I found myself travelling to Cardiff and my first visit to the Chapter Arts Centre in some years. And what a great small arts centre success story it is! It was great to be back.<br />
The play is another micro success story - it started out as a National Theatre Wales 'Waleslab' project, which means that it was initially an exploratory project supported by NTW's creative development policy for new talent and project seeding. From there it has continued to develop and is about to become a touring production.<br />
So it was really nice to see something that had started life in this way. As a piece of devised theatre it had a different feel to something that had been scripted. The whole first section of the play was a series of set pieces and monologues - I wondered whether perhaps these were drawn directly from the actors/ devisers investigation of their subject matter and while finding their characters. Rather than creating a story it painted a picture, and what we saw was 4 people pushing and pulling like a liFor my second critical chinwag outing I found myself travelling to Cardiff and my first visit to the Chapter Arts Centre in some years. And what a great small arts centre success story it is! It was great to be back.<br />
The play is another micro success story - it started out as a National Theatre Wales 'Waleslab' project, which means that it was initially an exploratory project supported by NTW's creative development policy for new talent and project seeding. From there it has continued to develop and is about to become a touring production.<br />
So it was really nice to see something that had started life in this way. As a piece of devised theatre it had a different feel to something that had been scripted. The whole first section of the play was a series of set pieces and monologues - I wondered whether perhaps these were drawn directly from the actors/ devisers investigation of their subject matter and while finding their characters. Rather than creating a story it painted a picture, and what we saw was 4 people pushing and pulling like a little boat caught in a squall... And we as the audience were tossed back and forth by each breaking wave of time and unsettling washes of the characters' feelings.<br />
<br />
These characters were a mother - tense, awkward and distracted, a father - withdrawn and caught in another time and place, a child - full of life but lost at sea and now locked in the past, and a family friend - who was both angel and disrupter, an often unwelcome bringer of truth.<br />
The child we heard as a voice, nearby but distant, sometimes from inside a tent as little stage within a stage, a place of bedtime stories, and wonderment at the skies above, with shadows dancing on its thin walls. Sometimes he was in conversation, sometimes he was just there - we saw him - a silent figure has drawn and projected on the wall. He was a very strong presence, precisely by not being there. This made his loss to his parents so clearly tragic, and they were so dumbly at a loss as to how to talk or behave with each other it was painful. Their friend Julia had a strong bond with boy, with their chatter of welsh words and tales of ancestors in the sky... but somehow her enthusiasm and strength antagonises the mother in particular. So when their child mysteriously disappears and Julia tries to help, she only adds to the tensions and difficulties between the parents, tho she is also the catalyst for them to heal...<br />
<br />
The initial jumpy feel of the play with distinct scenes gave way to something more fluid. Both space and time became ambiguous as we started to understand the characters more we could follow these threads of their feelings and either it didn't matter where or when something happened, or it all mattered so much it was all still happening right now.<br />
The characters started to interact more, sometimes in bewildering and difficult exchanges. We understand that the parents have lost their son but the exact circumstances remain a mystery to them, and they struggle to come to terms with this definite/ indefinite. In the most gripping, awful and heart rending sequence of the play, the parents sat either side of the table, neither able to meet the other in their lonely world, the mother frantically talking but soundless, the father grasping the table, completely at a loss/ in his loss. He bows his head but we gasp as it disappears into the table, which has somehow become a sink of water, and he holds his head there, seconds counting, minutes even, until he pulls upright again, drenched in water running down his face and body...<br />
It was shocking, and it was like a short circuit that flashed a bright pulse of emotion through everyone.<br />
<br />
The title of Light Waves Dark Skies was also the undulating current of the whole play, the characters returning again and again to sea or sky, both to search and also to console themselves.<br />
Where to start with I questioned where lectures on star physics and myths of the sea fitted in (tho I did enjoy them!) these emerged as the only way to grapple with the unreconcilable - the infinite sky and unplummable depths of the sea made peace of a long stare.<br />
<br />
The many interesting things about the play and its staging fuelled a lively conversation afterwards - starting with the time jumping and the shifting use of a fixed set, then onto the use of projections, plays of space and scale and the clever transitions between scenes that made a prop or a pose double up from one things end to another's beginning, then musings on the worlds that each parent had got stuck in and the fascinating role of Julia's character.<br />
At this point we were lucky enough to join a larger group that included the actual cast, designer and producer. It was great to hear about the devising process - resulting in much more fluid roles and ideas. It was particularly intriguing to learn that the original waleslab session had not included the Julia character, she evolved much later on and it had helped crystallise the story.<br />
I think we could all happily talk about theatre for ever (that's why we love critical chinwag!) and it was certainly very inspiring to hear about the creative process direct from those involved. Wher the play had had a cumulative and beguiling effect on me, I felt I also had a nice sense of the journey that made it. I was left with a strong visual afterburn of starlight and water, and felt strangely comforted.<br />
ttle boat caught in a squall... And we as the audience were tossed back and forth by each breaking wave of time and unsettling washes of the characters' feelings.<br />
<br />
These characters were a mother - tense, awkward and distracted, a father - withdrawn and caught in another time and place, a child - full of life but lost at sea and now locked in the past, and a family friend - who was both angel and disrupter, an often unwelcome bringer of truth.<br />
The child we heard as a voice, nearby but distant, sometimes from inside a tent as little stage within a stage, a place of bedtime stories, and wonderment at the skies above, with shadows dancing on its thin walls. Sometimes he was in conversation, sometimes he was just there - we saw him - a silent figure has drawn and projected on the wall. He was a very strong presence, precisely by not being there. This made his loss to his parents so clearly tragic, and they were so dumbly at a loss as to how to talk or behave with each other it was painful. Their friend Julia had a strong bond with boy, with their chatter of welsh words and tales of ancestors in the sky... but somehow her enthusiasm and strength antagonises the mother in particular. So when their child mysteriously disappears and Julia tries to help, she only adds to the tensions and difficulties between the parents, tho she is also the catalyst for them to heal...<br />
<br />
The initial jumpy feel of the play with distinct scenes gave way to something more fluid. Both space and time became ambiguous as we started to understand the characters more we could follow these threads of their feelings and either it didn't matter where or when something happened, or it all mattered so much it was all still happening right now.<br />
The characters started to interact more, sometimes in bewildering and difficult exchanges. We understand that the parents have lost their son but the exact circumstances remain a mystery to them, and they struggle to come to terms with this definite/ indefinite. In the most gripping, awful and heart rending sequence of the play, the parents sat either side of the table, neither able to meet the other in their lonely world, the mother frantically talking but soundless, the father grasping the table, completely at a loss/ in his loss. He bows his head but we gasp as it disappears into the table, which has somehow become a sink of water, and he holds his head there, seconds counting, minutes even, until he pulls upright again, drenched in water running down his face and body...<br />
It was shocking, and it was like a short circuit that flashed a bright pulse of emotion through everyone.<br />
<br />
The title of Light Waves Dark Skies was also the undulating current of the whole play, the characters returning again and again to sea or sky, both to search and also to console themselves.<br />
Where to start with I questioned where lectures on star physics and myths of the sea fitted in (tho I did enjoy them!) these emerged as the only way to grapple with the unreconcilable - the infinite sky and unplummable depths of the sea made peace of a long stare.<br />
<br />
The many interesting things about the play and its staging fuelled a lively conversation afterwards - starting with the time jumping and the shifting use of a fixed set, then onto the use of projections, plays of space and scale and the clever transitions between scenes that made a prop or a pose double up from one things end to another's beginning, then musings on the worlds that each parent had got stuck in and the fascinating role of Julia's character.<br />
At this point we were lucky enough to join a larger group that included the actual cast, designer and producer. It was great to hear about the devising process - resulting in much more fluid roles and ideas. It was particularly intriguing to learn that the original waleslab session had not included the Julia character, she evolved much later on and it had helped crystallise the story.<br />
I think we could all happily talk about theatre for ever (that's why we love critical chinwag!) and it was certainly very inspiring to hear about the creative process direct from those involved. Wher the play had had a cumulative and beguiling effect on me, I felt I also had a nice sense of the journey that made it. I was left with a strong visual afterburn of starlight and water, and felt strangely comforted.Iliad all night marathon part IV - in the end there is no endtag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2015-10-04:3152760:BlogPost:2363082015-10-04T05:53:28.000Zrachel rosenhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/rachelrosen
Everything hangs on a thread.<br />
Prayers to the gods, who will be heard?<br />
Battleworn, grey, barely able to stand anymore and wondering will this ever end - no, not the audience, but the cast of warriors whose battle spins and switches back and forth, as fates intervene and fortunes wheels slide like a chariot in the mud.<br />
<br />
The final chapter in this epic is one where all sense of right and wrong, winner and loser and even our own sleeping and waking worlds are blurred. But however pointless this war…
Everything hangs on a thread.<br />
Prayers to the gods, who will be heard?<br />
Battleworn, grey, barely able to stand anymore and wondering will this ever end - no, not the audience, but the cast of warriors whose battle spins and switches back and forth, as fates intervene and fortunes wheels slide like a chariot in the mud.<br />
<br />
The final chapter in this epic is one where all sense of right and wrong, winner and loser and even our own sleeping and waking worlds are blurred. But however pointless this war seems to have become, the purpose is brought into sharp focus like the improbable gravity-defying chair-star-towers that the soldier-crew have constructed amongst us... It's all about revenge.<br />
<br />
There are heavy losses on both sides, from the terrifying slaying power of war princes to huge bloodbaths in field ditches, brothers, sons, husbands lovers, cousins and loyally sworn oaths are lost broken and smashed. We are given descriptions of hideous injuries and heroic but pointless last breaths. We feel grief, we see defeat, and multiple voices wail and shriek at times.<br />
<br />
Fickle gods themselves are battling too for their own pride and amongst them a near-god mother brings her heart-wounded son back from betrayal and grief to avenge his loss and put aside his pride, Achilles returns to battle. The end comes then, he in his new magical armour, exacts a price beyond any a king could offer him.<br />
<br />
But as the story closes, the urgent, shouting voices that have spoken to us with full force of passion for hours, that have gripped us and cajoled us through the night, the rattling apparatus that has whirled around us in a battle frenzy at times, the drums beating wildly, all are stilled and silence falls. We have been brought in close, right up by people's faces and taught bodies, we are held by the stares of the two sides across the centre of the room, contemplating men's folly and errors, know that the cycle repeats. As they sat at the end - in the end, there is no end.<br />
<br />
We stand and applaud, not this war but the amazing physicality of us all actually being in this night long battle together, with armies of words and the carnage of loyalties. The cast have held us throughout with the power of their voices alone, a modern weapon, we are relieved we are only short of sleep not limbs.Iliad all night marathon part III - no one is sparedtag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2015-10-04:3152760:BlogPost:2363052015-10-04T02:33:37.000Zrachel rosenhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/rachelrosen
And so to war.<br />
We endure full fat gore as we are told the tales both small and vast of the showdown between Troy and Greece. The human tragedy of war unfolds. Twisting sinews, splintering bone and splint intestines are set against the mesmerising glint of sharpened steel and polished bronze.<br />
A throbbing hum surrounds us, vistas of history ancient and new are thrown into the wind that we imagine is blown around us, voices drift, people slump and the case are redeemed, what is real and what is…
And so to war.<br />
We endure full fat gore as we are told the tales both small and vast of the showdown between Troy and Greece. The human tragedy of war unfolds. Twisting sinews, splintering bone and splint intestines are set against the mesmerising glint of sharpened steel and polished bronze.<br />
A throbbing hum surrounds us, vistas of history ancient and new are thrown into the wind that we imagine is blown around us, voices drift, people slump and the case are redeemed, what is real and what is the treachery of gods and divinely induced lunacy as our minds bend through the sleepless night.<br />
<br />
Grief and life restoring miracles, it's a roller coaster. The soldier-crew now pile themselves up, and the audience too, lain down on the floor, casualties of two battles, one ancient, one right now as the night grows long. both men and yards diminish as the story takes us to the shore, will the Greeks push back or will their ships burn? The gods play their games and the Warriors pray to skies, the elements themselves are harnessed in the battle now - flood, fog and dark. Each side pledges their advance - and victory by dawn. To the ships or the gates - or just the gates of oblivion?<br />
<br />
But finally as night falls, an honour of sorts yields a cease, and a final, desperate, bribe fuelled plea to Achilles to put aside betrayal and help save his country.<br />
We are left with his pride, our collective fatigue and one question... Can anyone win this war?<br />
We like the Greeks retreat, to plot and sleep.Iliad all night marathon part II - war of the chairstag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2015-10-03:3152760:BlogPost:2366012015-10-03T23:53:30.000Zrachel rosenhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/rachelrosen
Part I ended with a call to war and part II started with a battle cry...<br />
<br />
From the minute we re-enter the theatre space the pace picks up, we stand expectant of action and rhythmic music surrounds us as the space fills with people. The generals of war take the stage and give us great polemics of bravery and honour, 1000s of men invited to shed their blood in the name of a cause.. And that name is Helen.<br />
We get to meet her and hear her painful, angry, proud story in a quiet but impassioned…
Part I ended with a call to war and part II started with a battle cry...<br />
<br />
From the minute we re-enter the theatre space the pace picks up, we stand expectant of action and rhythmic music surrounds us as the space fills with people. The generals of war take the stage and give us great polemics of bravery and honour, 1000s of men invited to shed their blood in the name of a cause.. And that name is Helen.<br />
We get to meet her and hear her painful, angry, proud story in a quiet but impassioned interval amongst the masculine sweat and violence. We also start to see more and more that for the gods this is all a game and to satisfy them, blood is not enough, cities must burn.<br />
<br />
The human dialogues have taken an interesting turn away from the simply heroic and taken on a more reasoned flavour. The power lords and kings have seen a way through the massive bloodletting - or so they think - and struck a pact. The husband that was, and the husband that stole, are to fight for the death, simultaneously facing the cause and resolving the outcome that the long war has not delivered. Where will the famed beauty of Helen shine her light? - back home or here in Troy.<br />
<br />
The theatre has become a battlefield courtroom almost, the audience have been plucked from their chairs and displaced into the middle of the drama.<br />
So now a fresh dawn and fresh sacrifices, two lambs one black for Greece and one white for Troy are invoked and slain, the drums roll and the dual begins. We are told all of this by our heroic cast, one minute kings and another handmaids, it becomes easy to forget that this is storytelling and the action is in our minds.<br />
<br />
Relentlessly on in behind and around us the soldier-crew continue with their shifting and building of structures, the apparatus of war emerges. we see the gods wicked bloodlust, they are angry at too reasonable a solution, furious they manipulate and intervene, a strange invoking of their power from their disembodied heads on screens they seem to have entered amongst us. An arrow flies, a huge sky drum of thunder rolls, then all hell breaks loose. Pacts of honour have been broken, and battle explodes. The cast all but disappear, their voices drowned out as the set is torn up and actually thrown, fast, noisily, violently into great piles like bodies on a battlefield.<br />
<br />
Wow. We all leave the theatre exhausted, exhilarated. And we're only halfway.Iliad all night marathon part Itag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2015-10-03:3152760:BlogPost:2365062015-10-03T20:20:19.000Zrachel rosenhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/rachelrosen
After weeks of anticipation, a day of travel and a sea of new faces, I am finally here blogging live from the ffwrnes theatre in Llanelli for their epic all night Iliad marathon.<br />
It's a theatrical adaptation as ambitious in its methods as in its subject.<br />
<br />
Inside the theatre its a studio set up with the audience scattered around in plastic chairs and a uniformed cast restless and grim pace between people. Voices, a man speaks, the epic begins, the great intractable battle that was Troy is being…
After weeks of anticipation, a day of travel and a sea of new faces, I am finally here blogging live from the ffwrnes theatre in Llanelli for their epic all night Iliad marathon.<br />
It's a theatrical adaptation as ambitious in its methods as in its subject.<br />
<br />
Inside the theatre its a studio set up with the audience scattered around in plastic chairs and a uniformed cast restless and grim pace between people. Voices, a man speaks, the epic begins, the great intractable battle that was Troy is being played out in swathes of narrative that are thrown like gauntlets from one cast member to another. Almost entirely without action, the intensity is held by these voices, their passion and rantings, while silent others move perpetually rearranging wooden poles boards and occasionally casting audience from their seats to shift their chairs, screens and sounds play and the tension builds.<br />
<br />
The words, names, alliances and feuds are bewildering but one thing is clear, after a 9 year war there is still no backing down, and at its heart are beauty and betrayal. The dissent of Achilles marks the descent into total war. King on King and God on God, the end of part 1 has set the scene.Trialog: Y Fenyw Ddaeth O'r Mor + Critical Chinwag + Sibrwd aptag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2015-03-23:3152760:BlogPost:2219972015-03-23T20:30:00.000Zrachel rosenhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/rachelrosen
<div><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">On friday night i attended an event at Clwyd Theatr Mold that was a little bit more than just seeing a play...</span></div>
<p></p>
<div><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">Four of us had agreed to take part in one of the NTW hosted 'Critical Chinwag' sessions, a really simple idea to get people talking about a play afterwards, in an informal way. Throw into this some matters of translation and varying degrees of Welsh…</span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">On friday night i attended an event at Clwyd Theatr Mold that was a little bit more than just seeing a play...</span></div>
<p></p>
<div><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">Four of us had agreed to take part in one of the NTW hosted 'Critical Chinwag' sessions, a really simple idea to get people talking about a play afterwards, in an informal way. Throw into this some matters of translation and varying degrees of Welsh language ability and the evening became fun on another whole level.<br/></span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">The play was Ibsen's 'The Lady From The Sea'. I had wanted to see this play from the minute i heard about it coming on tour, and was particularly interested that it had been translated into Welsh (from the original in Norwegian, and often performed in English). </span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">I am not a fluent speaker by a long way, but being a Welsh learner i was really intrigued to see how i got on with this. With the offer of the new Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru smartphone ap 'Sibrwd' ('whispers')to provide bits of synopsis as the play went along i took the plunge... The rest of the party were a mix in terms of welsh speakers - one native speaker, one almost none, another learner but much more advanced than myself.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">The play was great. It, like its characters, was haunted and compelling, its central character Elida drawn to both the open sea and a seafaring stranger who returns from her past to unsettle her comfortable, but constrained life. the symbolic nature of the stranger, who has a wildness and a dangerous edge to him, provides the human story of the sometime conflict of love and freedom. This was echoed at different levels through the other characters and their mix of sharply perceptive view of relationships, and naive idealisation of the same. The play was gripping and at times painful, like the characters who each seemed consumed by unreconciled desires, i too felt conflicted with both empathy and frustration for them as their stories unfolded.</span></div>
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<div><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">One of the things we talked about afterwards was how the female characters strained against the limitations of being a kept woman in the society of their time - yet still with resonance now - they seemed very modern women. It was nice to see a playwright from the 19th century giving such strength of character to the women in the play. conversely even the kindest of the male characters was seen to be limited, or coming very late to his understanding that unconditional love is to grant freedom to your love to be herself, and choose for herself what she wants. this was depicted in a fascinating and sometimes amusing way by the characters, key to which was the symbolic and ever-present character of the sea/ seafarer. the set dealt with this very simply and pleasingly too, with large structural backdrops creating an enclosed feeling of the fjord that contain Elida, and the central area of sun bleached boards narrowing into the back simultaneously providing a glittering hint of the sea, and a polite promenade for the players. Nice use of light and shadow sometimes created interesting juxtapositions - notably by emphasising the pale, luminous beauty of Elida in contrast to her dark and tormented feelings. Her transformations in mood from turmoil to calm were also like the changeability of the stormy seas. The costume design also effected a simple but striking transformation of her as the play developed, starting with her in dress that was relatively monotone and in keeping with her fellow characters, but becoming more ornate with flashes of blue, and layered like waves, and then her final dress in a dazzling turquoise as she fully inhabited her passion and identity.</span></div>
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<div><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">It was fun to talk about the play afterwards - its always interesting to see how other people see something for a start, but also learning from others understanding of the material. i am not what i would call an 'educated' theatre goer, i just absolutely love the intense starkness of theatre where less is so often more. As a visual artist i have also found that it is in stage design that i can best explore and express the sensory and visceral experience I love most.</span></div>
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<div><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">Using the Sibwrd ap was an interesting experience and helpful too. I had some backup from the fantastic Sibrwd team who provided me with an ipod when i discovered minutes before the start that my phone battery was right out, phew! Correctly described as a synopsis tool, it definitely did not provide a translation, more like little snippets of narrative to explain what was going on. The speech itself was not interpreted, and to anyone who was not at all a Welsh speaker they would not have been able to enjoy some of the great dialogue. However i was really pleased to find personally that my welsh is getting good enough that I was understanding almost all of what was being said, including crucial discussions about the duties of the wife and husband, of freedom, yearning and choices, and i even got some of the jokes! I am in no qualified position to say this but it 'felt' like the translation was excellent, it seemed to catch the spirit and emotion of the dialog without feeling like it was bogged down or unnatural. It felt like it was being spoken in its original language. The native welsh speaker amongst us, Dave Sabichi, also a writer and with knowledge of the original was emphatic that the translation was spot-on. </span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">The great thing about the availability of the Sibrwd ap is that gave me the confidence to come along to a welsh language production without being worried i might not be able to follow it. Because it did not hold my hand every step of the way (Sophie Mckeand described it fantastically as 'like having stabilisers on a bike') this in turn gave me the opportunity to really work my developing language skills and i came away feeling really encouraged by how much I understood. I'll be dragging my whole welsh class along next time!</span></div>
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<div><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">The whole thing - not just a really good play and great adaptation, but also hosting the enthusiastic natter afterwards and providing the talking synopsis option adds up to an outstanding set of options to enjoy theatre to the maximum. </span><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">I am very grateful to National Theatre Wales for offering these different layers for those that want them - you're really getting it right.</span></div>
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<div><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">I felt vastly enriched by the experience and am left with a powerful impression from the play itself that connected very strongly to all of us. There is no doubt that this was through language, a translation that seemed more than just words but captured the deepest spirit of person inseparable from landscape. "its almost as if Ibsen could have been Welsh"</span></div>Studio/ rehearsal/ office space available near Bangor, North Walestag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2015-03-19:3152760:BlogPost:2218412015-03-19T14:18:52.000Zrachel rosenhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/rachelrosen
<p><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">Hi NTW North Wales people!</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">are you a performer or performing group looking for rehearsal or workspace in the North Wales area?</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">we are a collective of artists and performers running a shared space on a cost basis.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">this…</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">Hi NTW North Wales people!</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">are you a performer or performing group looking for rehearsal or workspace in the North Wales area?</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">we are a collective of artists and performers running a shared space on a cost basis.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">this includes:</span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">reasonable rates</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">heating, use of kitchen, loos and parking all included</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">just outside Bangor</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">secure site</span></li>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">we may have a permanent workspace coming up in april (renewable on a 3 monthly basis)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">we also have two rehearsal rooms available for hire by the half-day/ full day or evening sessions. there is one small i.e. band room, one large room which is also suitable for aerial work. may also be suitable for running classes</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">anyone renting a permanent work space has access to these rehearsal spaces as long as they book them. normal workspaces may be suitable for storage of tech, set, costume etc or used as office, meeting or other workspace.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">other people on site include costume and musical instrument makers, lighting, set design and visual artists, musicians, dancers, percussionists and other performers. all artforms are welcome.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">if you are interested please feel free to phone me for a chat on 07806 262183 or email rosenfire9@gmail.com</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">performers from outside the area looking for temporary work/ project space, please do get in touch</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">best wishes</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">rachel</span></p>
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