National Theatre Wales collaborates with Gruff Rhys & Terry Jones
These productions include a touring gig with musician Gruff Rhys and artist Boom Bip and an adaptation of Monty Python star Terry Jones‘ children’s book Fairy Tales staged at Cardiff Castle.
De Gabay, a one-day, site-specific exploration of the Butetown area of Cardiff, with a focus on the lives of its young Somali poets and the generations that came before them, written by a group of young, local poets. According to press material, “audiences will move from private living rooms to wide boulevards to Cardiff’s political centre, swept along by both intimate and large-scale spectacular performances including an extraordinary parade.”
The Opportunity of Efficiency, written by Alan Harris and directed by NTW artistic director John E McGrath. A story of “small lives caught up in a global power struggle”, performed in Japanese at the New National Theatre, Tokyo – this will be NTW’s first international production, and its first collaboration with another national theatre.
Things I Forgot I Remembered, a co-production with Hoipolloi. This show will bring “Anglesey’s most famous son”, artist Hugh Hughes, home to the island for the very first time to be reunited with the family he’d left behind. Audio walks around Anglesey will “allow audiences an even more intimate glimpse into the life and times of one of its most intriguing sons, and his thoughts on the island where he was born.”
Tonypandemonium, by Rachel Trezise. A “hard-hitting, hilarious” autobiographical play about a young girl and her alcoholic mother, set in Trezise’s native south Wales valleys, and performed at the Park & Dare as part of its centenary celebrations.
Alongside those productions, the four residencies will each include over a month of collaboration with local artists from all disciplines; up-and-coming, mid-career and beyond, through the company’s WalesLab initiative. The NTW Assembly programme will also take root in the four locations. National Theatre Wales will work alongside the Welsh Music Foundation, which supports and assists the development of the music industry in Wales, to present up-and-coming bands.
Two additional, large-scale productions will be produced in 2013:
A touring rock gig by Neon Neon (the music collective led by the Super Furry Animals’ Gruff Rhys, and artist Boom Bip), written by Tim Price and directed by Wils Wilson, and based on the extraordinary life of Italian publisher and political activist Giangiacomo Feltrinelli.
Former Monty Python Terry Jones’ Fairy Tales will be brought to life in the capital’s dramatic castle over Christmas 2013.
Additional ‘surprise’ productions will be announced later in the year.
Artistic director John McGrath said: “Everyone at National Theatre Wales is immensely excited to be launching into our third year of work. With projects ranging from our premiere in Tokyo to our Anglesey and Treorchy residencies to our Christmas takeover of Cardiff Castle, we are truly digging deeper and traveling further than ever before. And with artists ranging from Gruff Rhys to Terry Jones to Rachel Trezise on board for the year, we can once again promise the very best of Welsh talent to ever-growing Welsh and international audiences.”
