NEW 2020 FESTIVAL

Now in its seventh year, Royal Welsh College Of Music & Drama’s festival of new writing brings four original plays to Cardiff over three days this month.

Performed by a cast of 33 final-year RWCMD students, as well as providing platforms for emerging directors, all four plays are showing in Wales before transferring to London’s Gate Theatre in April. As part of New 2020, playwright Tracy Harris and director Matthew Holmquist bring issues of trauma and addiction to the forefront in Ripples, which receives its world premiere at the festival. Set in a Bridgend rehab centre, Harris explores the convoluted minds of eight individuals who struggle to identify with each other. Harris acknowledges Cardiff’s Sherman Theatre for their collaboration in the project, after completing their New Welsh Playwrights Programme which “forced [her] to take [her] writing to the next level.” 

Award-winning playwright Charlotte Josephine will be unveiling Moon Licks, which raises questions over social media’s impact on the lives and minds of the younger generation, presented in collaboration with Paines Plough and directed by Hannah Hauer-King. Adapted from Eugene Ionesco’s 1959 play Rhinoceros with director Debbie Hannan, the festival’s third play is slightly more abstract. Described as a “radicalisation horror for the fucking normies of the Netflix generation”, Nessah Muthy’s After Rhinoceros: The Red Pill adds a slice of the avant-garde to proceedings. The fourth play to premiere, Half Full, is directed by Milli Bhatia and written by Yasmin Joseph. It draws attention to the power of food and consumerism, presented in collaboration with the Royal Court. SHANIA WILSON

Royal Welsh College Of Music & Drama, Cardiff, Tue 17-Thurs 19 Mar. Tickets: £5-£8. Info: 029 2039 1391 / www.rwcmd.ac.uk