| “Another Must-see Piece of Theatre" |
Byth Bythoedd Amen |
| Theatr Cymru Review Compilation , Sherman Theatre and Touring , March 6, 2025 |
Jon Gower was at the Sherman for Nation Cymru to see the newly re-named Theatr Cymru:“Exploring the subject of nights out in Cardiff has proved to be fecund source of material for Welsh dramatists in recent years. “There was Roger Williams’ ‘Saturday Night Forever,’ a tender account of the love between Lee and Matthew, with that tenderness offset against savage homophobia, first set in the 1990s, then updated for a restaging in 2015. “Then there was Daf James’ ‘Llwyth (Tribe),’ featuring four gay friends on a rugby international night in the city. “Following on from such plays, the latest exploration of Cardiff’s sometimes tawdry nightlife is Mared Jarman’s ‘Byth Bythoedd,’ which had much of the audience on its feet for last night’s preview performance at Cardiff’s Sherman Theatre. “It opens with Lottie fellating a Tinder date from the Valleys in a room at the Hilton which soon turns into something nasty, although Jarman, who both created and plays Lottie suggests strongly that Lottie has agency in this, that she has chosen to be here and to do this, not least when she walks away with some plastic notes from the stranger’s wallet. “The play then careers through the city streets in hallucinatory sequences which meld the past and the present, as Lottie is coming to terms with the death of her best friend Bennie, whose funeral she missed. “Which makes this a play about ghosts and memory, full of complexity and layering which director Rhian Blythe teases out into clear threads before tying them back together again. “Blythe hoped the play would unsettle people and this is very definitely achieved, not least because the disabled actors on stage can say things that others couldn’t, so we have a string of gags about missing a hand delivered by an actor who is missing a hand. Blindness is a subject throughout, but presented with a searching and revealing honesty. “Jarman holds the first half of the play together pretty much by herself, often mesmerisingly so and entertainingly able to summon up an array of different characters with their local; accents. She holds the floor until she is joined by Paul Davies, who variously and effortlessly inhabits a small cast of characters, including Lottie’s best friend Bennie, a night club doorman and a very funny drag queen. “The chemistry between them is palpable and there are touching moments of tenderness and togetherness not to mention some fab dance routines. It was perhaps a shame Davies only fully comes into his own to inhabit the second half of ‘Byth Bythoedd’ and this seems like a dramaturgical mis-step, although when he does join the journey into night it adds crackles of energy, not least in a very effective karaoke scene. “The music, much of it by Eadyth Crawford adds pump and pulse to the tickertape dialogue as the play moves from a hospital ward in Lottie’s childhood through rammed nightclub dance floors to Bennie’s flat where she discovers his body and invokes his spirit. “It is also, pretty centrally a play about the sex lives of disabled people. Lottie is blind, as is her creator Mared Jarman, who has a degenerative eye condition which worsened considerably when she was fourteen. “...Jarman is very good on the details of Cardiff life, especially the gender fluidity and social groupings of people on their nights out, from the boorish machismo of ‘roid pumped men through the zombified denizens of Queen Street to drag queens dressed more outrageously than peacocks. “The local audience seemed to relish the idiocy, for instance, of choosing Chapter Arts Centre for a first date, ‘hardly a boner’ as Lottie puts it. There’s also the appearance of beloved local character Ninja, although on this particular occasion Lottie isn’t in the mood for his kind of ‘spoken word and bin drumming.’ Undoubtedly some of these references will be lost on the good people of Rhosllanerchrugog and Felinfach as it tours the land but for the Cardiff audience it offered lots of extra things to relish. “The play ends with a very simple coup de theatre which will be familiar from plays such as Conar McPherson ‘The Weir’ and I’ll studiedly give nothing away, other than to say they dial it all down deftly, keep it very simple and it works.” Abridged, with thanks and acknowledgement, from the full review which can be read at: https://nation.cymru/culture/theatre-review-byth-bythoedd-amen-by-mared-jarman/ * * * * Buzz Magazine was there: “A bilingual show that swaps between English and Welsh, the play follows Lottie as she traverses the heaviest night out of her life: navigating the loss of her best friend, she moves through hookups, brawls and drunken bathroom conversations. Largely a monologue told from Lottie’s perspective, she keeps seeing the shape of her best friend appearing in different forms throughout the night, and eventually her grief comes out full force. “Byth Bythoedd Amen is a celebration of queer and disabled identities that doesn’t shy away from the difficulties of being different from the mainstream. We see Lottie try to answer the question: what is the meaning of living when people think you shouldn’t exist? “...Various other characters, including Lottie’s best friend Bennie, are played by the incredible Paul Davies. Completely captivating whenever he’s onstage, Davies’ energy is magnetic, and his huge range brings much needed texture to the play as a whole. “Acknowledgement should be made of the creative team, particularly Garrin Clarke’s lighting design – the set having been created with accessibility in mind, it cleverly enables Jarman to navigate the space while also maintaining complete artistic integrity. The lighting is atmospheric, and moves the characters and audience seamlessly through many different spaces and emotions. He really demonstrates here that accessibility doesn’t need to detract, and can in fact enhance the theatrical experience. “Theatr Cymru has created yet another must-see piece of theatre. For anyone in the industry wondering what the future of the craft might look like, I’d start taking notes.” Abridged, with thanks and acknowledgement, from the full review which can be read at: https://www.buzzmag.co.uk/byth-bythoedd-amen-stage-review-theatr-cymru/ Byth Bythoedd Amen played at the Sherman Theatre, Y Ffwrnes, Llanelli, Y Stiwt, Wrexham, Pontio, Galeri and Theatr Felinfach. |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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