2) National Theatre Wales- 'The Village Social' review

‘Because beneath even the most respectable exterior will lurk some strange impulse, some irrational craving, some inappropriate imagining.’

This is National Theatre Wales’s first visit to Neath Little Theatre, and it seems the whole community has turned out to witness the event. Following a highly successful Edinburgh Fringe with their devised piece ‘The Dark Philosophers’, National Theatre Wales return to their homeland with a surreal musical theatre piece. Created by Welsh playwright Dafydd James and fellow writer Ben Lewis, it has been described as ‘The Vicar of Dibley meets The Wicker Man’, a bizarre yet accurate comparison to which the piece most certainly lives up to. Music is at its heart, and is a device often utilised to represent contrast. Music becomes the precipitating factor for the descent into psychedelic hysteria, whilst previously it had represented the more traditional aspects of community life.

We are welcomed into the village hall of Cae Bach, walking directly into the scene with characters milling about preparing the hall for tonight’s event. The set creates the perfect atmosphere; balloons, flags and a ‘glamorous’ gold stripped tinsel backdrop all work to convince us of an authentic, poorly decorated community hall. We are greeted by Lawrence (Darren Lawrence), joined by Yvonne (Carys Eleri), Lisa-Jên (Rebecca Harries), Dave (Oliver Wood) and Jean (Sue Roderick), who welcome us to Cae Bach’s autumn social. The piece adopts a Brechtian technique by ‘breaking the fourth wall’, forcing the audience to become a part of the scene with characters acknowledging the audience’s presence as they happily wander from stage to audience. What struck me most of all, was how easily the audience bought into the pantomime act. Prompted by a single arm movement, the audience enthusiastically joined in the action consequently becoming the community of Cae Bach. As the piece progresses, we are made aware that we are waiting for a special guest, Madam Isis. Due to her late arrival the characters begin to stall, singing and relating myths allegedly associated with Cae Bach. Although these stories may seem irrelevant, they are obviously being set-up for a greater purpose later on. Dion (Gwydion Rhys), Lawrence’s son, brings on a selection of youths and together they perform a song that is perhaps overly long and slightly irrelevant. Unfortunately, several plot plants are heavily dropped into the light-hearted script, which is slightly jarring.

The piece then slips into the Horror Film genre, when a power cut affects the whole hall. We as the audience are placed in the same position as the characters onstage, continuing our role as the community of Cae Bach. This is done subtly with lighting that is so smooth you don’t even realise the change. Realistically and cleverly lit by candles, we witness the characters expressions as a veiled, hunched figure emerges from the back of the hall. This is obviously Madam Isis, who apologises for being late on account of her Sat Nav being broken and having to rely on the spirits to guide her to her destination. At first Madam Isis begins as a poor medium, relying on the gullible Yvonne to feed her the information she needs to perform a badly prepared act. Then it begins to get a bit more sinister. She relates information about the characters that is completely personal; things that only they themselves would know. Even as Madam Isis begins to reveal the true gory details of that ‘bad situation’ previously alluded to, the audience continue to laugh, whether awkwardly or not, it seems they have failed to grasp the severity of the situation. Madam Isis then disappears in true pantomime style: all that is left is a scarf and a puff of smoke.

After this, characters begin to leave one by one returning later in various excessive states. Jean enters with a dead dog on her head, followed by Dave dressed as ‘the small girl who danced herself to death’ depicting a story earlier told by Lisa-Jên. Yvonne joins the stage again representing an earlier story of a disgusting monk, whilst Lisa-Jên and Lawrence depict an act of sexual lust. Before long, the stage is a host of excess and hysteria, but the audience continue to laugh. The significance of the symbolic Bacchus head hanging on the tinsel backdrop is obviously lost on the audience: the characters are blatantly being affected by the ritual and madness of the God Dionysus. The scene reaches its climactic point when the God himself enters, lusting for a sacrifice. The characters must choose which of them must serve their community, and what better way to decide than by conducting a raffle (I knew I shouldn’t have bought two strips). The lights come up, and we slip back into the ridiculous façade of the autumn social, much to the relief of the audience. The last ticket to be drawn is the ticket of the damned. Stopped at the last second by Dion who has been seemingly absent for most of the social, he removes the Bull’s head and begins the last story of the night. As he recites the story in a hypnotic trance, he admits to spiking the characters with psychotropic drugs, inducing their hallucinations. It becomes apparent that Dion had not in fact been conducting the meetings of the Woodcraft Folk but had instead been conducting the meetings of a secret pagan cult. In a truly powerful ending, Dion’s symbolic suicide takes place. The audience sit for a while apparently confused by the contrast, but never-the-less commends the cast with raucous applause.

Although collectively a strong cast, Gwydion Rhys gives an outstanding performance as both Dion and Madam Isis. The piece was genuinely enjoyable and fantastically rich in myth, but I fear the twisted humour of the piece may have been slightly misunderstood by an older audience. The piece slips easily from the light-hearted, stereotypical Welsh community hall into the more serious dramatic action which has become an archetypal factor for the company: it just seems this was more confusing than engaging for some. How do I feel I can conclude this? As the community filed out of the hall, amongst other confused reactions, my favourite was definitely, “Well it was different. Peculiar, like. A bit like Midsomer Murders.” Despite several confused responses, I for one feel incredibly excited for future projects by the company. National Theatre Wales is truly taking a step into the future with innovative, affordable theatre.