{150} | STAGE REVIEW
Royal Opera House Stores, Aberdare, Tues 30 June
For many local Welsh folk, Patagonia is less an actual place than a romantic, rose-tinted legend, shrouded in myth and mystery. In reality, of course, it is a colony to which over 150 people travelled approximately 150 years ago. Many of these were Welsh were men, women and children from the Aberdare area, which is where National Theatre Wales’s most recent production is set.
Inside the Royal Opera House’s hangar-like storage space, we set off not by plane, but on foot; a long lorry, bedecked with audio tape and a subtitle system, enters and departs now and then, too, but this is a more a makeshift stage – a bringer and bearer of information – than a means of transportation. ‘Promenade’ is the name given to this stroll-through style of theatre and it works here as we travel through areas of the space, mimicking the pilgrims in a sense, and seeing / hearing / reading about their experiences through a mix of theatre, film, dance, installation, and text.
Mystery is soon replaced by intimacy as the purposes and perils of their journey and attempts to settle themselves in a hot, harsh landscape are revealed. The patter of Patagonia makes way for the true stories of its travellers: their need for water and a consistent irrigation system; the attacks by wild animals and heavy dependence on horses; the deaths, from sickness and other sources, in a place where it is “as easy to lose your mind as lose your way”.
However, human tenacity wins through, and ‘Y Wladfa’ survives. In addition to these material needs, the spiritual urgings of the pilgrims are also enacted, and intimated. From the powerful declamations of a preacher stood in an impossibly high pulpit, to the whirling dervish-like dancing of a woman who seeks the spiritual in the elements of earth and sea. This yearning is also found in the intermittent raising of arms towards the heavens, and many other elements. For example the cosmic geometry of lit perspex packing crates along a corridor and the often eerie, sometimes ghost-like dancers, faces shadowed or hidden by their large-brimmed bonnets.
Altogether, this makes for a very interesting, very intelligent production. {150} is impressive in its scope and sheer imaginative reach, which I suspect comes of having an artist (Marc Rees) at the helm. There are moments of absolute wow-ness, instances unique imagery, and the odd refreshing touch of humour. The ending is absolutely stunning, if not heart-wrenching, and we are left with much to mulch over as we meander back home, not least of all the idea that home really is where the heart is – in heaven, and on earth; right here, or far over there.
words MAB JONES
{150}, Royal Opera House Stores, Aberdare, until Sat 11 July. Tickets: £16.50/£14. Info: www.nationaltheatrewales.org