This year, Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru bring Brên. Calon. Fi. to the National Eisteddfod in Pontypridd. Hari Berrow speaks to actor Lowri Morgan about her character, Fi, and the show.
Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru and Bethan Marlow have been going from strength to strength in the last few years, so Brên. Calon. Fi.– another teamup between the company and the Pijin (Theatr Iolo and Theatr Gen)and Feral Monster (NTW) writer – is not to be missed.
“It’s a one-person show,” explains Lowri Morgan, the person in question: the Welsh actor plays Fi, the play’s title character. “The premise is that Fi has been invited by the Eisteddfod Genedlaethol to read out some of her work about being a lesbian. Whilst she’s trying to deliver this poem, she decides to break out and give more information, because she believes she’s not giving enough in the poem she has written.”
The show is about coming of age and coming out in the 2000s – exploring what it meant to be working-class and queer at the time. “It goes through Vi’s life journey from a child of 11 until her early 30s, through highs and lows,” says Morgan. “She discovers her place in the queer community, and within herself also. She meets a lot of people along the way that test her, and we really see her being pushed to a lot of emotional peaks in the play. This is usually done by the women she meets and falls in love with along the way.
“I think it’s a really realistic showcase of that experience. The character comes from a town where she feels she has had to hide, had to fit into the mould that she sees around her, and has put herself through a lot of mental turmoil that she didn’t really understand at the time to fit in, and then years down the line it all comes back and hits her again. She is a little bit older than me but it’s still an experience and set of emotions that I feel are so super-relevant now.”
Morgan has really enjoyed taking on a role as complex as Fi. “She is such a real person. It’s been such a joyous experience, living with her. It has just been drilling down into her psyche, how she thinks and how she sees the world. Her mind is so fast-moving – she often gets overwhelmed by how much she is feeling, and she finds it hard to articulate how her feelings manifest, I think. She is not a massively successful communicator, and I think that is interesting when you’re just on your own on stage, and she is trying to communicate her story to the audience.”
If you’re interested in subversive and emotionally engaging comedy, Brên. Calon. Fi. is one to make sure you see on the Maes this year. “I think it’s really one of the first of its kind in the Welsh language,’ Morgan says, ‘It’s not a whitewashed version of a lesbian experience – it’s real, it’s raw, it’s graphic, it goes to the hard places, but it’s really funny.
“I feel that if just one person can see the show and just feel like they see themselves on stage and can relate to something, that would be amazing. It goes to hard places, but it also hopefully is a really funny show. It’s funny, it’s joyous, and I really hope that people will go with her on that journey.”
Brên. Calon. Fi., National Eisteddfod, Ynysangharad Park, Pontypridd, Thurs 8 + Fri 9 Aug (4pm)
Admission: free after purchase of ticket to Maes. Info: here
words HARI BERROW
