ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT by Charles Way. Hijinx Theatre tour to 8 December.

Tour

ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT
by Charles Way

Hijinx Theatre on tour to 8 December 2001
Runs 2hr 30min One interval

Review Timothy Ramsden 30 November 2001 at the Emlyn Williams Theatre, Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold.

Excellent revival of a 1994 play that shows a leading writer for young people at full strength for a wider age range.If I'd pinned down Hijinx' show earlier in its run, this review would have been different. Audience members always bring their own experience, internal and external, into play. Mine was to have read John Moore's 1931 novel Dear Lovers. There's considerable similarity, though Moore's story is different in detail from Way's drama.

In Dear Lovers Martin Rooke is a young farmer, deeply in love with Hazel but unable to marry as he's struggling to keep his farm afloat. Only her accidental pregnancy forces their hand. Martin loses his farm owing to social prejudice. Very different from Ill Met's miserly curmudgeon Samuel Jenkins, proposing marriage for selfish reasons to Mary, the pair of them struggling towards eventual, unselfish love through greater knowledge of each other, and of themselves. Both of them well past the age of young love too, and it will be their second wedding if it does happen.

The oppressive squirearchy taken on full tilt by Moore has a magical equivalent in the play. Though a bailiff comes to foreclose on Jenkins, we know the broken walls and other mishaps are instigated by the Puckish spirit Gwarwyn-a-throt as part of a supernatural bet with Hedydd, his reluctant changeling servant.

Yet, as Samuel, like Martin, struggles through the snow to protect his sheep, I found the novel inevitably recurring. (Moore wrote about Gloucestershire; the play happens over the border in late Victorian Radnorshire.) The comparison shows the strength of Way's writing. He endows the supernatural with the reality it had for country folk whose closest neighbours beyond the immediate cottage row were the spirits inhabiting the lanes and fields before these were naturalised with tarmacadam and neo-Georgian housing.

Kevin Lewis's fine production imaginatively represents Dyfrig Morris's playful, irresponsible spirit through a percussion kit. Well-played, and soaked in Ian Buchanon's moonlight, it's a near-perfect evening. And only near perfect because the Emlyn Willams seems slightly too formal for this show. I'm sure it has worked supremely well in village and community halls where the close links between audience and performers doubtless allowed this latter day Dream to shine in perfection.

Mary Morris: Cler Stevens
Hedydd: Nia Davies
Samuel Jenkins: Rhodri Hugh
Gwarwyn-a-throt: Dyfrig Morris

Director: Kevin Lewis
Designer: Andrew Harrison
Lighting: Ian Buchanon
Composer: Paula Gardiner
Movement: Jem Treays

At Eastmoor Community Centre Cardiff 5 December, Melville Theatre Abergavenny 6-7 December, Llanover Hall Cardiff 8 December.

2001-12-03 09:57:56