Jacob Mier takes a gander at the gloriumptious and squiffling surprises on offer this month as part of the Roald Dahl 100 celebrations.
Roald Dahl – author of {The BFG}, {James & the Giant Peach}, {Charlie & the Chocolate Factory} and many, many more – is known around the world for his children’s stories. Less well known than his work, however, is his birthplace: Wales. Dahl was born in Llandaff, Cardiff on 13 September 1916 and, were he still alive, that date this year would mark the much-loved author’s 100th birthday.
To mark his centenary and bring Dahl’s legacy back to Wales, a number of celebratory events have been happening across the country throughout the year. Forming part of the Welsh Government’s Year of Adventure, the Roald Dahl 100 celebrations focus on Roald Dahl’s gloriumptious stories and characters, “delivering a year packed with squiffling surprises and treats for everyone.” Literature Wales’ {Invent Your Event} scheme, running parallel to its successful {Writers on Tour} scheme, has provided funding for a wide array of events which engage the whole of Wales in literature, creative writing and reading.
Fittingly, it’s September – the month of Dahl’s birth – in which we can expect the most incredible and spectacular of all these celebrations. Without a doubt the biggest and boldest event on the Roald Dahl 100 calendar is Roald Dahl’s {City of the Unexpected}, an epic-scale cultural spectacle which will turn the city of Cardiff on its head on Sat 17 + Sun 18 Sept. Involving 6,000 participants, the premise of the weekend-long project, according to its website, is to temporarily transform the Welsh capital into a place where the laws of physics, logic and the predictable will give way to magic, fun, invention and the surreal, as if Roald Dahl himself is at the helm.
In keeping with its title, not much is known about what exactly we can expect to see over the course of the weekend. But the event, which is the first production of its size to combine the forces of the Wales Millennium Centre and National Theatre Wales, promises to be “a totally surprising celebration of the man, his characters and his stories.”
Leading theatre and event director Nigel Jamieson – whose work has featured in the Sydney Olympics Opening Ceremony, the Manchester Commonwealth Games closing ceremony, and opening events of the 2009 European City of Culture celebrations in Liverpool – is at the helm of a huge team of creative professionals which will be responsible for capturing the essence of Dahl’s extraordinary imagination and immersing thousands of visitors in everything from large-scale events to intimate performances, all staged across Cardiff’s streets and public spaces. Cardiff will see roads closed from the train station up to the Castle, with performances scheduled to take place in shops, arcades, parks, and even on top of buildings.
Part of the excitement going in to the {City of the Unexpected} is, well, not knowing what to expect, but there are a few things visitors will be sure to see: enormous crowds, the kind of which have never before been attracted to Cardiff city centre for a cultural spectacle of this scale; great scope and variety, with intimate sideshows and jaw-dropping centrepieces; and, most importantly of all, a commemorative reflection of the mischievous and magical ethos which makes Roald Dahl’s stories continue to touch hearts and capture imaginations throughout the world today, the same way they have throughout the decades since their first publication.
The spectacle promises to leave the whole of Cardiff in a state of wonder and awe, but the {City of the Unexpected} is only the highlight of a wide and varied programme of Dahl celebrations happening across Wales this month.
{The Wondercrump World of Roald Dahl}, which began its run in August, will be at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay until Sat 14 Jan 2017. Created using archived materials from the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, the exhibition – previously held at London’s Southbank Centre – is an immersive and nostalgic tour through Dahl’s life and work, comprising a series of interactive instalments which engage visitors’ imaginations and intertwine Dahl’s world with their own.
With {Quentin Blake: Inside Stories}, the National Museum Cardiff offers a celebration of the artist whose illustrations are synonymous with Dahl’s books. Running at the Museum until Sun 20 Nov, the exhibition promises a unique insight into the origins of some of Blake’s most iconic and popular creations, which are as bound up in our nostalgic attachment to the books they illustrate as Dahl’s words are.
Due celebration is also owed to the lesser-known work Dahl produced for adult readership, and National Theatre Wales’s production {Wonderman} recognises this. Having enjoyed a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer, the stage show is now coming to the TramShed in Cardiff to coincide with Dahl’s centenary, and can be caught from Tues 13- Sun 18 Sept.
It’s hoped that the Roald Dahl 100 celebrations will help to culturally situate the author’s legacy more clearly in the place of his birth, but the fun and festivities are by no means restricted to the Welsh capital.
Swansea’s National Waterfront Museum is putting on a variety of events focusing on Dahl during the same weekend on which Cardiff will become the ‘city of the unexpected’. Beginning with a ‘gloriumptious’ day of storytelling, kooky arts and crafts, the museum also offers a Splendiferous Science Show and Phizz-Whizzing Animal Animation workshop, before closing its Dahl-themed weekend with a screening of Wes Anderson’s stop-motion adaptation of {Fantastic Mr. Fox}.
Further afield still, Gladfest in Hawarden, Flintshire is offering a number of workshops aimed at engaging children from ages 5-12 in the spirit of Dahl’s wonderful imagination. Inspired by Dahl’s work, their focus ranges from poetry and language to Roald Dahl ‘Scrabble’, in which children are encouraged to rearrange letters to make phrases which capture the author’s own playful sense of language: ‘the sillier the better!’ Parents are told to ‘keep out!’ of the workshops by the festival, which takes place on Sat 3 and Sun 4 September.
Suffice it to say, lovers of Roald Dahl will find plenty on offer wherever they are in Wales this month. As much a vivid reminder of the author’s often overlooked Welsh origins as a tribute to the timeless legacy of his world-renowned work, {City of the Unexpected} and all the other Roald Dahl 100 celebrations that are going on in September will leave a number of legacies behind them, engage a population’s creativity, and promote imagination to the forefront of collective cultural consciousness.
The last line of the last children’s story Dahl ever wrote – {The Minpins} – reads: “And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” This month, be ready to believe.
City of the Unexpected, Various venues across Cardiff, Sat 17 + Sun 18 Sept, Admission: free, readings £10. Info: www.cityoftheunexpected.wales
The Wondercrump World of Roald Dahl, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, Until Sat 14 Jan 2017. Tickets: £8-£9. Info: 029 2063 6464 / www.wmc.org.uk
Quentin Blake: Inside Stories, National Museum Cardiff, Until Sun 20 Nov. Admission: free. Info: www.museum.wales
Wonderman, TramShed, Cardiff, Tues 13 – Sun 18 Sept. Tickets: £13.20. Info: www.tramshedcardiff.com
Splendiferous Science Show and Phizz-Whizzing Animal Animation Workshop, National Waterfront Museum, Sat 17 + Sun 18 Sept. Admission: free. Info: www.museum.wales
