A TOY EPIC. To 20 October.

Mold.

A TOY EPIC
by Emyr Humphreys adapted by Manon Eames.

Clwyd Theatre Cymru (Emlyn Williams Theatre) To 20 October 2007.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat 2.45pm
Audio-described 11 Oct
Captioned 13 Oct 2.45pm.
Post-show Discussion 11, 18 Oct.
Runs 2hr 20min One interval.

TICKETS: 0845 330 3565.
www.clwyd-theatr.cymru.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 6 October.

Childhood evoked in North Wales’ answer to Cider With Rosie.
This is a very local play Novelist Emyr Humphreys was a Flintshire lad and drew on his “corner of Wales” for this story of three boys growing up between the wars: sons of established and nonconformist church ministers, Michael and Iorwerth, and bus-driver’s son Albie. Under the hills they play, but never go far away. Their bleak end is prefigured near the start of Manon Eames’ satisfying adaptation, recurring the more forcefully at the end, when the characters, and their abundant lives, have become well-known.

An ensemble piece, it moves fluidly between characters, locations, times and events in a style director Tim Baker handles confidently, something reflected by a cast who create instant surface characterisations or burrow deeper inside the central trio.

It’s a hare-and-tortoise world, where advancement at school varies, bringing late success or crushing defeat after a promising start. The social importance of education is clear, as are childhood attitudes in Albie’s criticism of his parents’ small council house or Michael’s not noticing the constrictions in his excitement as a visitor there.

Welsh identity flows through the play. There’s the easy switch between Welsh and English languages in talk between a child and servant, contrasting the instruction to speak English in certain social situations, and Albie’s efforts to sound as English as if he came from over the border, from one of the smarter parts of Cheshire.

Baker moves events over the bowed rampart of an acting area, backed by designer Martyn Bainbridge with a vertical cloth that, according to Nick Beadle’s lighting, suggests black distant mountains and sea, or a 2D impression of the green fields of home. Occasionally a character emerges with comic unexpectedness from behind the acting area, in the way suddenness and surprises form part of young lives.

And it is the young on whom Humphreys and Eames focus. Parents are slighter figures, seen through their offsprings’ eyes. It adds a sadness to the single exception, the adult narration briefly framing this eloquently-told tale of youthful hopes coming to an end that might as easily be at the hand of life as of death.

Albie/Ensemble: Dyfed Potter.
Michael/Ensemble: Gareth Milton.
Iorwerth/Ensemble: Dylan Williams
Ensemble: Catrin Aaron, Llyr Evans, Jonathan Nefydd, Alys Thomas.

Director: Tim Baker.
Designer: Martyn Bainbridge.
Lighting: Nick Beadle.
Sound: Kevin Heyes.
Composer: Dyfan Jones.
Dialect coach: Sally Hague.

2007-10-10 10:58:33