DRUDWEN
****
Thurs 7 Nov, The Riverfront, Newport
Drudwen the enchantress has everything she has ever wanted, except children – so when she finds Oggie and Olga in the forest, she is delighted. But that delight soon turns to terror in this twisted tale. Fairy stories are often gruesome and this one is more so than most. The audience is witness to murder, cannibalism, and even a very disturbing skin-peeling scene.
Even though Newport’s Riverfront Theatre is an intimate space, the stage was set with benches, a climbing frame, and ropes. The actors were an agile bunch who made swinging, jumping and somersaulting look easy during the interludes of impressive aerial circus, and sometimes their choreographed movements took on a poetic quality. Along with the horror, there were lighter moments of humour, but just as the story had begun to capture our imaginations the usher called a 20-minute break, which broke the narrative spell and caused the performance to lose its momentum.
Drudwen – written by Kate Driver Jones and directed by Gwen Scott – is the first touring show of North Wales-based artist collective Cimera, in partnership with Pontio and supported by Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru. It was also a bilingual event. The dialogue and narration were delivered in Welsh and English, but with more emphasis on Welsh (perhaps more than was needed), and at times it would have been helpful to have had the odd word or phrase in English just to keep up to speed with the story. Having said that, the guttural sounds of the Welsh language added to the sense of menace when the twins were at their most evil – perhaps it was just as well I couldn’t understand what they were saying!
In the show, the forest in which we find ourselves is dying, but this point is not laboured and in fact the trees have only a peripheral significance. It wasn’t until the end when Prince Oggie’s love interest speaks the final few lines that it becomes clear that this is really a play with an environmentally conscious message about corporate greed and deforestation. The message – ‘I couldn’t stand by and do nothing…’ – was clearly and loudly spoken in English, and it was at that point it dawned on me that I had just watched a metaphor made physical.
words LYNDA NASH
Drudwen is also at Venue Cymru, Llandudno (12 Nov) and Aberystwyth Arts Centre (15 Nov). You can find more information here.
