INHERITING GODS | STAGE PREVIEW
Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
Wed 21-Sat 24 Mar
What role does language have in reconnecting us to our roots and shaping our identity? It is a question that two people in Carmen Medway-Stephens’ Inheriting Gods grapple with as they cross paths. Two people from opposite ends of the globe – one from Wales and the other from the Native American tribe of Wampanoag – search for themselves.
Set in an alternate history where both Welsh and Wampanoag has long died out, both being seen as languages which ‘won’t help you get on in this world’, language is of course, as much a way of thinking and approaching problems as it is a way of communicating, and Inheriting Gods looks to approach the subject of language as a font of personal identity, particularly through the vein of languages that aren’t as widely-spoken or valued by the wider world.
It will be interesting to see how writer Stephens develops and connects this to themes of loss and identity that was clearly present in her previous plays, Utah Bride – the tragic-yet-humorous story of a teenage runaway who returns to the Valleys for a night of harsh home truths – and Bara Bread, where a lost woman finds community and shared identity through the act of bread-baking, both of which were received very warmly amongst the theatre-going crowds of South Wales.
Tickets: £12/£10. Info: 029 2030 4400 / www.chapter.org
words Catherine Jones
photo Kristen McTiernan