Glyndwr Edwards's Blog (36)

The Best of all Possible Worlds? - Graig Du Theatre Players

Our moral arbiters are so keen to see a perceived threat to peoples' well-being when there is none. It has become the norm in what is supposed to be a democracy to take offence at the least slight when a small minority need to be protected against the majority. The recent news that the Lord's Prayer advert has been banned by cinemas is only to be expected. Who exactly is humiliated or offended that it has to be withdrawn? The country has been in such a moral decline that it is…

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Added by Glyndwr Edwards on November 23, 2015 at 4:31 — No Comments

Lease of Life - Graig Du Theatre Players

I will post a blog in the near future about what kind of work I will be inviting to be submitted from playwrights in the Rhondda. This will be a gradual beginning before more openings appear for others to contribute from different areas. The aim is to provide a fresh outlook for audiences and not rely on the usual stereotypical formula. I will also be posting…

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Added by Glyndwr Edwards on November 13, 2015 at 8:19 — No Comments

Tied Cottage - Graig Du Theatre Players

Another curious tale that came up in discussions with a previous incarnation of the group was the problem of obsession and how far would a person convince themselves that they were correct in their assumptions. Character became secondary to this premise. The play came about from a throwaway remark by Martin Summers that the past never really leaves one. Jack…

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Added by Glyndwr Edwards on November 9, 2015 at 9:30 — No Comments

The Manacled Mutineer - Graig Du Theatre Players

I have included an extract from another play that will have a rehearsed reading in the near future. The play tells of Ambrose, in his late eighties, who is dying in a Welsh hospital. Appalled by his treatment because he believes he has been lying in bed for far too long, he understands he is being slowly poisoned by the morphine that has been injected into…

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Added by Glyndwr Edwards on November 6, 2015 at 4:00 — No Comments

Soldier Pass by - Graig Du Theatre Players

I have included an extract of another play that will be staged when things are up and running. "Soldier Pass By" tells the story of Lewis, Peter,and Dan who have joined the Rhondda Pals. On the eve of a major offensive on the Western Front, the three friends are anxious. Lewis has survived an explosion in which two men died. Suffocating, he is pulled from the…

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Added by Glyndwr Edwards on November 2, 2015 at 9:23 — No Comments

The Signal-Man-Graig Du Theatre Players

I mentioned in an earlier blog that people I spoke with enjoyed a good ghost story and that there were possible stories that could be adapted. Charles Dickens was the one name that frequently came up and it was not just his famous ghost story "The Signal-Man " published in the 1866 Christmas edition of his magazine All The Year Round ; it is allegedly based…

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Added by Glyndwr Edwards on October 31, 2015 at 9:30 — No Comments

False Identity - Graig Du Theatre Players

With the controversy still raging over the TalkTalk cyber-attack still in the news, I remembered a short piece "False Identity" that Clare Stelling wrote for the group a while ago. It is highly relevant with the brouhaha about a person's identity and how can you prove this. I have included the extract below. It is probably based on an actual incident. This still goes on today.

Mrs. Mortimer,late fifties, writes at a table in the centre…

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Added by Glyndwr Edwards on October 29, 2015 at 9:30 — No Comments

The Wylfa Ghost - Graig Du Theatre Players

 

The proposed venue for the rehearsed reading of "Sorrow for my Sons" by the Graig Du Theatre Players is the Maes-yr-haf Hall, Trealaw, Porth. I will post further updates in the near future. Another ghost story, which might interest members, is the curious tale of the Wylfa Ghost, Anglesey

During the construction of the site in the early 1960s for the nuclear…

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Added by Glyndwr Edwards on October 28, 2015 at 5:00 — No Comments

Josh "Ted" Edwards. Concept Artist - Graig Du Theatre Players

Josh "Ted" Edwards, currently in his last year of studying art at Cardiff University, is the concept artist for the Graig Du Theatre Players. One of his early influences was studying the work of Alan Lee, especially his illustrations for Castles and his defining images for Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Interpreting an author's words into a series of pictures is what fascinates Josh the most.

I have included an illustration he painted after reading one of H.P. Lovecraft's…

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Added by Glyndwr Edwards on October 25, 2015 at 4:30 — No Comments

Supernatural Cardiff. Graig Du Theatre Players.

My late father worked for many years on the Rhondda Transport as a conductor in the 1960s and he never tired of telling me the ghost stories that he heard from passengers about Cardiff and the Vale. The stories included the ghostly sounds of horses' hooves heard going over the bridge to Cardiff Castle, a spectral coach vanishes as it approaches the castle…

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Added by Glyndwr Edwards on October 21, 2015 at 9:30 — 2 Comments

Force of Evil. Graig Du Theatre Players.

Another psychological supernatural drama that is under consideration is "Force of Evil". In a sleepy village in Sussex, the Reverend James Barclay discovers an ancient remembrance is about to reassert itself. Stephen, his son, is missing in action as the Second World War reaches its defining stages. Barclay is dumbfounded when Prentiss appears in Hallow Glen…

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Added by Glyndwr Edwards on October 20, 2015 at 9:12 — No Comments

A Cabinet of Curiosities. Graig Du Theatre Players.



C.G. Harrison, a High Church Anglican, is little remembered today. In 1893, Harrison wrote a rather curious book entitled "The Transcendental Universe." and gave a series of lectures that caused uproar in esoteric circles and the Church, for he revealed…

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Added by Glyndwr Edwards on October 18, 2015 at 8:00 — No Comments

Ghosts and the Supernatural. Graig Du Theatre Players.

With the release of Guillermo del Torro's Crimson Peak in the cinemas, this reminded me of a number of conversations I had with different people about what subject matters they would like to see presented by the group. Surprisingly, the answer was supernatural and ghost stories. The majority said that they did not like anything explained. The whole point of being frightened…

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Added by Glyndwr Edwards on October 16, 2015 at 2:30 — No Comments

Cymmer Colliery Disaster 15th July, 1856. Graig Du Theatre Players.

 Another project that interests me would be developing a play based on the inquest that took place on the Cymmer Colliery Disaster at the Butchers Arms, Pontypridd on 27th July 1856. The explosion was the first of many that were to destroy the communities of Wales and the rest of Great Britain. I have included an article that reinforces the point that the employment of…

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Added by Glyndwr Edwards on October 15, 2015 at 8:00 — No Comments

Opening scene from Sorrow for my Sons.

I thought it might be of interest to add the opening scene from Sorrow for my Sons, the one-act play I intend  to stage  to publicize the Graig Du Theatre Players.The premise of the play, about the mysterious death of W.D. Llewelyn at Penllergare in 1893, has been alluded to in my profile of the group.

Labourer:  Us five were talking by the quarry bridge the…

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Added by Glyndwr Edwards on October 14, 2015 at 7:30 — 1 Comment

Intended Plays for the Graig Du Theatre Players

The Manacled Mutineer

Ambrose is in his eighties; dying in a Welsh hospital. Appalled by his treatment because he has been in hospital too long according to the doctor, Ambrose knows he is being slowly starved of his last breath by the morphine that has been injected into his stomach. He starts hallucinating and is conscious of all and remembers…

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Added by Glyndwr Edwards on October 14, 2015 at 4:00 — 1 Comment

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