National Youth Theatre Wales - How do you eat an Elephant?

Saturday 6th September 2014, Cardiff City Hall. 

The National Youth Art Wales summer programme was brought to an end this year with an energetic and poignant performance of the National Youth Theatre Wales’ play How do you eat an Elephant? at Cardiff’s city hall.

The chosen performers of the NYTW scheme worked under the direction of Artistic director Jude Christian and associate director Aled Pedrick. The young actors worked intensively with the two directors for a ten day period in Aberystwyth, which culminated in performances of the show in Aberstwyth, Merthyr and Cardiff.

The chosen style of performance for this year was a devised piece, with a focus on using verbatim theatre as the main stimulus. The play attempted to answer some of life’s most difficult questions. These questions were posed to the cast during the creative process via social media, on twitter and Facebook. By using social media in this way, a connection between audience and performer was made throughout the creative process. It seemed appropriate that the actors would use this experimental way of creating theatre as it is modern and relevant to them as well as being a unique tool that only creators of theatre in our time can use.

This connection made between audience and performers extended further with the actors visiting the local community of Aberystwyth to gather many of the answers to the questions within the play. These two elements combined created a play that seemed very in tune with its audience, as well as creating an important message that theatre can be a source to connect people of different communities on an emotional level.

The questions raised within the play ranged from the trivial, such as which is the correct way to hang a toilet roll? To the more serious like what happens to us when we die? Each question was approached with humour where appropriate, as well as sensitivity with some of the more difficult subject matters.

The talent of the actors onstage stretched beyond their acting ability. A wide range of performance styles were used within the play, varying from dance, singing, music and physical theatre to help find answers to each of the questions. This not only showcased the full ability of each of the performers, but prevented the play from becoming too focused on the verbatim element within the play’s structure.

The set designed by Gaby Slade worked perfectly as a performance space as well as representing the themes of the play subtly and effectively. The set was adaptable, featuring a movable rubix cube structure in its centre, which represented some of the puzzling issues within the play. The pieces of the cube were moved by the actors throughout the play to create certain sets allowing for multiple performance spaces. The scheme itself not only appeals to young actors, but offers professional training to young people interested in the technical side of theatre. The staging of the play made the backstage part of the focus, placing the backstage team either side of the stage in view of the audience. The range of multi-media used in the play showed how highly skilled and imaginative the members of the chosen tech team were. They should be commended just as much as the actors themselves for their creative talent.

The evening as a whole demonstrated the talent of our future young theatre creators and performers in Wales in a memorable evening of theatre.