NATIONAL THEATRE WALES ANNOUNCE DETAILS OF PARTS 1 & 2 OF MIKE PEARSON & BROOKES’ STORM CYCLE
National Theatre Wales’ 2018 season will kick-off in February and March with the first two parts of The Storm Cycle, an extraordinary, three-year collaboration with theatre-makers Mike Pearson & Mike Brookes, who have created some of National Theatre Wales’ most critically-acclaimed work to date (The Persians, Coriolan/us and Iliad).
STORM.1: Nothing Remains The Same will be a poetic, cinematic reimagining of the first two books of Roman author Ovid’s Metamorphoses, with a new text narrated by Aimee-Ffion Edwards (Detectorists, Peaky Blinders, Jerusalem) and Mike Pearson. It will be performed in Pafiliwn Bont, Ceredigion, 15-17 February.
In his epic narrative, completed just before his exile in 8AD, Ovid links together “into one artistically harmonious whole, all the stories of classical mythology”. Above all, he tells of extraordinary and miraculous changes and transformations, in the nature of people and of things.
In a theatrically thrilling combination of word, sound and unexpected occurrences, STORM.1: Nothing Remains The Same takes up two of Ovid’s early stories.
In the first part, Chaos & Creation narrated by Mike Pearson, a disordered universe is brought into harmony, and then put at risk through the faults, frailties and violent acts of successive races of humanity. In the second, Ignition & Eclipse narrated by Aimee-Ffion Edwards, the foolhardy Phaëthon insists on driving his father Phoebus’s fiery chariot – the sun – to prove he’s his divine son. But his reckless exploits lead to tragedy…
STORM.2: Things Come Apart will be a multi-platform exploration of the Cardiff riots of June 1919 – as documented by the local press of the time. It will be performed in a Cardiff church, 21-24 March.
In June 1919, Cardiff city centre was the scene of four days and nights of vicious riots that left three dead, many in hospital, and properties wrecked and burnt. The root causes were a long-standing, complex knot of post-war frustrations following demobilisation – lack of housing, lack of jobs, lack of opportunity. But the spark that finally ignited the worst of the violence was racial tension; local troublemakers and soldiers clashed with Yemeni, Somali and Caribbean seamen in front of vast crowds of onlookers.
No full narrative of the riots exists. A new text, specially compiled for STORM.2: Things Come Apart, creates a running account using only the reports in local, period newspapers, as well as the Chief Constable’s assessment. Inevitably partial, they expose the attitudes and prejudices of that era.
This verbatim material will be narrated live by a cast of three professional actors (Ali Goolyad, Aisling Groves-McKeown and John Rowley). Combining it with period maps, commercial directories and photographs of the city, STORM.2: Things Come Apart will pinpoint key locations in a now completely changed urban landscape.
At a time of global political and social instability, this hard-hitting production will be a reminder of the value of compassion and of hard-won civil rights, and the risks we take when we neglect them.