War is a Tragedy and Sennybridge a Star!

This week I was fortunate to make my way up to the Brecon Beacons and see NTW's latest production ... The Persians (#NTW06). So what did I make of the experience?

Let me first provide some context. Did I know much about the story and it's history - a little bit, but not really. I knew it was a Greek tragedy and a Greek Tragedy is usually about love or war or both. Did I know it's significance as the first European play ever written - a little as I saw this in some of the marketing materials. Did I know much about the modern adaptation written by Kaite O'Reilly, and how it was developed from the original text or the director Mike Pearson - Nope, sorry, never heard of them. Except for this trailer for the show on YouTube. Had I heard of the cast, Sorry, nope, although I did recognise a few faces from maybe a TV performance or two.

Perhaps I am showing my ignorance of Theatre or the Performing Arts in Wales here? Maybe ... I have only lived here for 7 years. Or maybe I just see it from another perspective ... The experience that is theatre ... and something I've always loved ... I love and attend theatre regularly and studied Ancient Greek History as part of my schooling, albeit not Greek Drama, but the two are not that inseparable. My drama classes once included Shakespeare's Macbeth, Hamlet and Othello and The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. A play I'll always love. But as I said, I see theatre from a different experiential perspective ...

So my point ... what enticed me to attend? What really had me intrigued? ... was the location!

Sennybridge Military Training Centre (SENTA) in the Brecon Beacons. I knew in the Brecons was where the British Army conducted a lot of their training, but I had visions of soldiers running around the hills, crawling through mud, camping out or stationed in a fox hole. I never could have imagined the presence of an entire German Village, build in the 1940's perched high up in the Brecon ranges. So secure, that you have to be escorted in on a bus with the rest of the audience, wearing green ponchos and wondering where you might end up. Simply stunning ...

Now all the pieces of the puzzle started to fit together as we drove into the camp, stepped down out of the bus and walked through the village ... a greek tragedy about war, set in a military training camp surrounding by stunning green hills of the Welsh Countryside, in a time an era when we continue to question our government about our countries involvement in conflicts ... be it the war on terror on our own soil or the many conflicts we are involved with now on foreign soil, or the many conflicts we, our family and friends have seen over centuries ... War still remains and unfortunately most probably will for some time .. a contemporary theme with which society is so deeply embedded ...

My thought as we walked through the village, and joined another group inclusive of young army cadets, I wish my dad was here, and not just he, but other service men and women and importantly the politicians who make the decisions on going to war in the first place. My father served in Vietnam and to him, this experience would be most certainly both poetic and and also important in its message ... and the production had not yet even started.

Then it begins ... a car approaches, music sounds ... 4 men dressed in modern grey tailored suits emerge, stoic in their presence and passionate in their delivery ... Scene 1 ....

I'm not one to spoil the experience for others and also don't think I could ever do a production justice with a detailed account of it, but it most certainly was a show well worth four of us speeding along the M4, clinging for dear life around corners, watching intently for the odd sheep to wander into our path as we speed through the lanes around Sennybridge, hoping to not miss the last bus at 7:20pm. Entry was under strict military control.

The location, a superb decision for such a production. With a chill in the air, views across the Brecon from a desolate war torn village, in which modern technology is juxtaposed against bare course brick, iron and the voice of the few to which the story is entrusted - a presence but also a lack of civilisation, the location is tragic in its self. In my opinion, the real star of the show was this location, both contemporary and raw in its scarcity ... a village deserted, like too often when men go off to war ... a perfect synergy with the tragic words and scene that unfolds before you ... Most certainly a one time experience!

As we left, however ... I was left curious for more. More about the story, the original and Kates script, the Greeks and Persians civil identities ... and also about the military training camp in which the narrative it embedded, wondering how many British Soldiers have passed through this streets, high in the hills of Brecon, training to cope in times of tragic conflict!

So I was left curious, googling, "The Persians" and "Sennybridge" on my iPhone in the car on the way home ... this is some of what I found about The Persians, a YouTube clip of the location at Sennybridge ... and these details about Sennybridge Army Field Training Centre (SENTA) ...

So to the cast, crew, production team and MoD ... what ever your role and vision, well done on not just sharing the script and story with us, but also helping us follow what is only but part of the journey many make when they go off to war ... be it from Persia or the foothills of Sennybridge ...

That is the tragedy and failure on our part ... that since this play first production in 472 BCE, we, society still fail to learn the tragic lessons of war ...

Thank you ...
Kelly


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