This October, National Theatre Wales and the Dutch rural theatre company PeerGrouP are returning to Rhayader for the third stage of their research and development project, Rrrrriot.

This will be lead artist Henry J. Alles’ second visit to Rhayader.  Last autumn, he stayed in the village for the second phase of the project and became a big fan of the town. You may have seen him playing drums and guitar in one of the town’s pubs, climbing mountains, working in the Lion Royal Hotel and enjoying a Sunday roast on the corner of Rhayader's cross roads. Henry spent his time investigating how he could become part of the local community.

Summing up his last, month-long, visit to Rhayader, Henry writes; “Here it is about water, flowing water and power - electricity and political power, rules and overregulation, local strengths and local powerlessness, the extremely friendly character of the people, loads of energy to play games, check on each other and the graving to act crazily on Saturday night. This is where I would love to make a play. It will be about the people, the water and some health and safety regulations. Because that last one really has gone to far. Somebody has to say something about it.”

Henry’s last visit finished with his organising a performance event for 30 people in the old school community centre, which he called a Shimli. The Shimli consisted of lots of food and drink plus sharings of his and other people’s talents.

This year, Henry and his team will be staying in Rhayader from the 7th of October. Their visit will culminate in two performances (Rrrrriot) on the 19th and 20th of October and an after-show event (Rrrrroast) on the 21st of October. Tickets for the performances will cost £3 and will be on sale through Carad. All money raised will be donated to local causes.

Rrrriot will be about a man in a woman’s dress in rural Wales at a festive event that turns into quite a riot. The man tells everybody what they really need to do; grow pigs, go to London and bring in new blood, eat porridge, dress up every Saturday night, steal the electric power from the water, even poach. He rides the wooden horse down to the river and makes the big jump into it. The river where kids are the keys of paradise (according to the inscription in the park). Paradise Rhayader, Paradise Waterfall.

The show is being created through collaborations between both locals and professionals. Quite a few people in Rhayader are already involved in the production, showing their talents as part of the band, as actors, cooks, stagehands, and in many more roles. If you’d like to part of the project, please join our Facebook group or get in contact with Alan or Kate Samuel.

If you see Henry or any other Rioters around Rhayader, please feel free to say hello to them and tell them a story or two about the town. We hope you will join us at one of the performances and the after-show event.

For further information on the project, contact us:

Twitter: #rrrrriot

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/RRRRRiot/?notif_t=group_added_to_group

National Theatre Wales’ Community Group: http://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/group/rebecca-s-rhayader-...