Hello, here is my first review for young critics... 

Sgint

Sherman

Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru

07/02/2012

Review by Efa Blosse-Mason

The play ‘Sgint’ is a Welsh language play, written by Bethan Marlow and directed by Arwel Gruffydd, exploring the effect money can have on people’s lives. Concentrating on the working class, it created a gloomy picture of a struggling community in Caernarfon. It was very unusual, for all the dialogue came from interviews with real people which gave it a very natural yet surreal, half-documentary half-drama feel. It was like a collage beautifully put together. The dialogue was unmistakably real; it was full of ‘Wenglish’ and pauses, ummms and ahhhs, making the characters come to life in a way no play write could ever achieve. However, there wasn’t much apart from dialogue. If you closed your eyes all the way through you wouldn’t have missed much.

I am a welsh speaker but I went to the subtitled night with a friend who could,'t understand welsh, and she found there was a lot to read and the subtitles were placed quite awkward so she gave up half way through.

Some parts were very funny, with some of the rather eccentric local characters, but sometimes I felt there were too many characters to get to know. The main character – a teenage mother - was played by Manon Wilkinson whose performance shined. Her mother was played by Morfudd Hughes, who moved the audience effectively.

The play ended with all the characters in the community dancing together, with money pouring down upon them. I think this was meant to symbolise ‘as long as we stick together we are rich’, but for some reason it did not have an uplifting feel.

I would recommend this play to anyone who wants food for thought, because it did make me think of the value of money in our lives and its effect on our happiness.