Graig Du Theatre Players
Information
The players are in the process of being formed. I will post further updates in the next few days. My intention is to form a community theatre group, with four probable performances a year, to encompass the work of playwrights in the Rhondda as a beginning. Original work will be encouraged. I would like to hear from any members, when I give out further information, if they would be willing to partake in the first staging. This will include actors, actresses, directors,who would be interested in supporting the idea to get valuable experience at the start of their careers. It would be a learning curve for me. I intend staging my play" Sorrow for my Sons" to publicize the group within the next few months. The full version of this play "Painting the Darkness" is to have a performance with the Fluellen Theatre in 2017. The play tells of the mysterious death of William Dillwyn Llewelyn, the eldest son of Sir John Dillwyn Llewelyn, who was found shot dead in the woods of the Penllergare estate on the afternoon of his engagement to Lord Dynevor's daughter in August 1893. The play explores the background to events, the inquest held the following day into his death, and William's friendship with J.Arthur Gibbs, the author of "A Cotswolds Village". I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the late June Lewis-Jones of Fairford, Glos, who helped me considerably with the three-act version of events. After answering my advertisement in her local newspaper, she was intrigued by my discoveries and, as she held Gibbs's diaries in her possession; she was also an author in her own right, she said she would aid me in any way as long as it did not jeopardize her work. June said that I had seen something in the unfolding events that no-one had realized before. Gibbs's strange requiem poem to his dead friend is well worth reading, as is his version, which I believe to be truthful, of the events that took place at Penllergare on the fateful day.
Location: Porth, Rhondda
Members: 10
Latest Activity: Dec 11, 2018
Discussion Forum
Street Singers of the Valleys. Gwillym Pen Pwyll.
The one regret my father had while growing up in Dinas was that he did not pay much attention to the stories that were being told. The stories he did tell me were fascinating to the say the least,…Continue
Tags: Du, Theatre, Players, Graig, Pwyll
Started by Glyndwr Edwards Nov 21, 2015.
Unknown Stories from the Rhondda.
Ebenezer Chapel, pictured above before its demolition in the 1960s, was one of the…Continue
Started by Glyndwr Edwards Nov 17, 2015.
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Comment by Glyndwr Edwards on June 21, 2017 at 8:01
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Thanks for your best wishes, Josh. I didn't see the e-mail until yesterday. Things have been a bit hectic with my op and I have been too exhausted to do much in the way of publicizing the players. The bank accounts are now open and we can proceed with planning the opening day. I will message the other members with my intentions for the future very soon. They have been more than patient.You will have to design the poster for "Soldier Pass by"
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I received the messages and forgot to answer until yesterday. Overall, there is little that will change in "Painting the Darkness." I will show this with a slightly revised exchange between Arthur Gibbs and Rudyard Kipling while they were sailing to Cape Town.
Kipling: Your eyes will get progressively worse in this fading light, Arthur. Did
you not just hear me?
Gibbs: I was miles away. There is little to do but think.
Kipling: I am an expert on eyesight and the perils of reading by candle light
when I should have been sleeping as a lad. We all do things we
regret. My worsening eyesight has not improved with these latest
spectacles my ophthalmologist swears by. I often wonder how Julius
Caesar would have fared if he had to wear spectacles as he
addressed his old sweats.
Gibbs: (Laughs) I can perfectly see the words of Tennyson, Rud.
Kipling: I regret that I never had the opportunity to meet him. One hears
so much of renowned poets and authors that one is disappointed if
they do not meet one’s expectations.
Gibbs: Tennyson’s Crossing the Bar dismays me on occasions.
Kipling: What troubles you, my friend? Where is the heady cheer of the
previous evening?
Gibbs: Do you believe Tennyson feared death?
Kipling: He, like many others, understood the complexity of the soul and that
it would return to its natural abode. This world is nothing but a
cesspit.
Gibbs: Christ travels with us.
Kipling: Of course. Milton referred to Lycidas who guides the souls across the
waters. Would he have been pleased, if he had a glimpse of the
future, and saw his remains being disinterred and solvents
made from his bones?
Gibbs: I do not give much credence to that story.
Kipling: There has to be a basis of truth to it. We British have a morbid
fascination with death. You only have to see this foolishness with the
mausoleums that are in the cemeteries around London. Once you
dead, you remain in that state. There is nothing more regrettable
than staring at a reminder of a man or woman, mother, father,
brother, sister, that once breathed like you and I.
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Comment by Josh Edwards on April 22, 2017 at 8:30
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I watched The Lost City of Z the other week and it was rather good. Percy Fawcett was not the fool people believed he was. His military career shows this. The interesting story is what happened ten years after the party's disappearance, Glyn. Geraldine Cummins, a psychic, made contact with Fawcett and he told her he was still alive in the jungle, in a semi-conscious state. His mind was still able to communicate with her. It sounds far fetched, I know. It is intriguing, though.
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I have completed the outline on Machen's "The Great God Pan," Josh. The possibilities are endless. There was little to condense in the story because ambiguity would play a great part in how Mary is portrayed. Nothing should be explained because it is indefinable once the fury has been unleashed. I will have a look at his other story "The Red Hand" next.
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The story is a forgotten gem by S. Levett-Yates and it has possibilities for a forty minute version,Josh. There is enough detail in the story to include more characters. but this would be unwise.It is surprising this tale of a Faustian pact is little mentioned today. The other authors I looked at were Perceval Landon and Bernard Capes.
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Thanks for the research!
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There was a difference of opinion from the sitters as to what were the actual words. Two agreed with what they believed they heard: "To him that overcometh I will give a white stone". One said the words were written by John of Ruysbroeck.
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Thanks for the information, Josh. Let me know what the sources are for the previous lot you sent. They are intriguing. Whether it is factually reported is the moot point. The significance in what was reported at the seance is the duality of man and mentioning the back and white pebbles found in prehistoric mounds across Britain.
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I forgot to add that Gurney, one of the founders of the SPR, committed suicide in mysterious circumstances in 1888. Another figure, long since neglected, is Nandor Fodor. His book "On the trail of the Poltergeist " is well worth reading.
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I read the account of what occurred at Ballechin House in the 1880s and there is much that is open to question. The Marquis of Bute was involved in offering to fund the trip , Glyn. On the other hand, the SPR seemed determined to prove telepathy as scientific proof of life after death. One of the investigators, Ada Goodrich Freer, appears to have been a plagiarist in her later works when collecting folklore stories in the Orkney's.
Pages (108)
- Brook Cottage, Dinas.
- The Dinas Pals'1914.
- Death of Arthur Rees, Appletree, Dinas. 1908.
- Boot Inn, Dinas.
- Dinas Road before the clearance.
- The Prince of Orange pub, Dinas Road
- The Last houses to be demolished in Dinas.
- Inkerman Street, Dinas. "Concretes"
- Bethania Chapel, Dinas Road.
- Gwillym Pen Pwyll's"Ragamuffin Tales"
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