Stand Up in the Park – Cardiff Open Air Theatre Festival
***
Sophie Gardens, 24 Jun
It could not have been better weather for this event in Cardiff as a part of the Cardiff Open Air Theatre Festival. The park was open, people were walking around in shorts, hats and sunglasses around the stage and everyone was buzzing from the heat. In aid of Amnesty International’s Cardiff branch, Standup in the Park was dedicated to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been detained in Iran since 2016 on security charges, as volunteers gently urged people in their good humour to donate what they could.
The stage was large and well decorated with a pretend bar, where MC Clint Edwards served pretend vodka once on stage. He was on point in getting the audience’s attention and laughs and clued in to what was going on in Cardiff, which was refreshing as so many comedians can miss the mark with this. Having never seen him before I couldn’t tell if he was in particularly good form or if he was always this bouncy, but he woke me up anyway.
Rhys James was great with self-deprecating family-orientated humour which always goes down well with a British audience; exploring the awkward. Lorna Prichard sang her own made-up songs in the style of grime, so that was that. And Kiri Pritchard-McClean’s comedy was witty and intelligent from a switched-on woman – I loved it. Ben Norris, although failing to respond well to a heckler, delivered deadpan and hyperbolic observational comedy. But then again, no comedian likes a heckler.
The event was supplied with a bar, toilets and a Grazing Shed pop-up burger bar (which didn’t sell chips, to my lamentation but the burger guy serving was such a character he made up for it). As always, during the break the bar was heaving with people squeezing in their drinks before heading out afterwards (we Welsh love a good drink, as Clint Edwards said…he’s not wrong).
The Open Air Theatre Festival is a wonderful creation and brings so much liveliness and culture to Cardiff and this show was packed, with not one empty seat. Amnesty came to the stage to sing happy birthday to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe which, at the end of a show with such horrendous news in days previous was a warming reminder that there are kind people working out their tirelessly every day to help others.
words Ruth Seavers