Silverglass

at Taliesin Arts Centre
Friday 13 September, 8.15 pm
Tickets: www.taliesinartscentre.co.uk 

Two Welsh BAFTA-winning actors going head-to-head on the same stage is always likely to make the sparks fly. And bringing two of the nation’s favourites together for D.J.Britton’s new play Silverglass is proving no exception.

The play, about the mysterious and electric friendship between Valleys writer Rhys Davies and cult literary heroine Anna Kavan, is an emotional roller-coaster for actors Richard Elfyn and Eiry Thomas.

Richard Elfyn teams up with Britton again following their hugely successful Lloyd George stage-play The Wizard the Goat and the Man Who Won the War. Eiry Thomas, fresh from filming The Indian Doctor (BBC1) and Hinterland (S4C/BBC4), worked with Britton on his recent version of Measure for Measure for Sherman Cymru.

“It’s like working with an ideal scrum-half/stand-off combination,” says Britton – himself a former rugby flanker who moved to Wales from Australia and now heads dramatic writing at Swansea University.

“In rehearsal, Eiry and Richard do things I wouldn’t have thought possible, switching from comedy to deep pain on the turn of a heel. It’s a high-energy piece and in rehearsal they manage to combine pace with grace quite astoundingly.” 

Rhys Davies was a master-craftsman of Welsh fiction, combining pin-point observation of Valleys life with a twinkling sense of humour. Kavan wrote dark and troubled novels described by J.G. Ballard as “somewhere between poetry and madness”. Each lived a life of self-invention, in which secrets, sexuality and deep questions of personal identity lurked constantly in the shadows. Silverglass is set in the late 1960s when Davies’ late literary recognition and Kavan’s final tragedy came together like a thunderclap.

Britton is using the same development process for Silverglass that proved so successful for The Wizard the Goat and the Man Who Won the War.

The show will be given a single pilot performance at the Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea, on Friday 13 September, followed by a public discussion. The team will then do further work on the show before offering it for national tour next year.

“Giving an early audience a first chance to see, and comment on the play worked well for The Wizard,” said Britton. “People seem to like to be in at the start of something, and, of course, by telling us what they think, they become part of the creative process.  We’ve become committed to this way of working.”

Silverglass is presented by Theatr Cadair in association with The Rhys Davies Trust and Literature Wales and is supported by National Theatre Wales. The play forms part of the Rhys Davies Short Story Conference which is taking place at Swansea University from Friday 13 to Sunday 15 September. 

Tickets for Silverglass are available from the Taliesin box-office on 01792 602060 or online at: www.taliesinartscentre.co.uk - Price: £8.00 / £6.00 concession / free to Rhys Davies Short Story Conference ticket holders

Note: Silverglass is suitable for age 16 and over. It contains very strong language and adult content i.e. references of a sexual and drug related nature.