4 TALES TO SAVE THE WORLD | PREVIEW
Grim and Wales are not two words always wildly estranged from the other, from the grey rainy weather to the towns left behind over decades to become drab and desolate. But many of us Welsh see the beauty of our home as well. That’s the Wales that 4 Tales To Save The World illustrates: a harsh, sombre, and beautiful land.
Produced by storytelling singer-songwriter Gwilym Morus-Baird and Derbyshire’s Adverse Camber Productions, 4 Tales… is a multi-part audio story presented in ‘box set’ form. As well as the quartet of readings themselves, each around 20 minutes long, purchasers get adjoining music, commemorative postcards and the chance to take part in a Q&A session about the stories themselves and the issues raised. Initially, it was devised as a live performance; lockdown nixed both this and the producers’ plan B, a livestreamed theatre show, leading to this intriguing change of tack. Appositely, the stories depict four different apocalyptic worlds describing COVID-19, climate change, genetics, and extinction of human life.
The first tale, He Lives Upstairs by Mary Ann Constantine, showcases a world ravaged by coronavirus and climate change and follows a man trying to survive in a desolate Wales. He recalls how the world slowly became the dogged present that he lives in, this tale feels most profoundly Welsh. The second, The Void by Bethan Dear [pictured above, with Gwilym Morus-Baird], again leans conceptually on climate change but ponders the meaning of life: what makes life worth living and how what can put our lives in danger can make us feel most alive.
João Morais’ The Haves And Have Nots takes place in Cardiff, and stands out by virtue of being written poetically. It ponders economic inequality, genetics and how the haves will sometimes create their realities to keep the have nots without. Though the rhymes may strike some listeners as coarse or incongruous, a superb flowing rhythm is maintained throughout. Finally, The Last Word finds Kate Hamer portraying an Earth where climate change has caused full-scale species extinction – except for a single man, Kai, who has survived and finds a garden somehow untouched by the planet’s now-deadly conditions.
Morus-Baird’s narration and music are each superb: his voice soothes and chills you through the tragedy around the tales, his arrangements call to mind a lot of Gruff Rhys’ work, notably the American Interior album. With He Lives Upstairs, it’s the music that initially pulls you into the world, conveying intense hiraeth – this, you feel, is exactly what 4 Tales… attempts to depict. Yes, it’s not Wales as we know it, yet still a familiar warm feeling is felt in the dystopian world.
The lack of visuals for 4 Tales…, while the product of necessity, makes it even more apt: we can imagine the Wales the writers, with Morus-Baird as their vocal vessel, sketch in our own heads whilst we are stuck inside our homes. You often find yourself at a juxtaposition listening – both horrified and comforted, amazed and saddened, filled with dread and hope. 4 Tales To Save The World is bleakly beautiful.
Available as an audio box set until Thurs 4 Mar; package (£15) includes a ticket to the Q&A event held via Zoom on Sat 13 Mar. Info/to order: www.adversecamber.org
words THOMAS MADDOCKS