Review in Barn Magazine November 1995 issue (ISSN 1357-4256)
Once the audience of 300 people had been seated among the pine trees on a structure resembling a football field terrace, at a ‘special location’, they were bombarded with the stench of urine and a rotting sheep’s carcass, bright distress flares, abstract music interwoven with strings of words... a theatrical event or an extravaganza of immature gimmicks?
It was exciting, intense, thrilling... and unique. I felt like a spy being allowed to capture, for a second, the secret life of some wild creatures in their natural habitat, as on an October evening, I sat deep in the forest, not far from Cellan, near Lampeter, watching the latest theatrical event from Brith Gof - ‘Tri Bywyd’ (Three Lives).
We were offered episodic glimpses of three kinds of existence; three lives which were as alien to one another as... as a theatre and a forest! The decline of a hill farm from providing a home and a livelihood to being a bare ruin; the murder of Lynette White - a common prostitute - in Cardiff Docklands in 1988, and the death of twelve year old Sarah Jacob from Llanfihangel ar Arth who, it is said, survived without food or water for two years one month and one week. Brief glimpses of three lives plus gimmicks? Isn’t this going from bad to worse?
But simply telling their stories was never what the company had in mind. The English and Welsh texts which were used were not a simple key to the content either. Numerous questions were raised by re-creating the few facts which are known about the three lives. Direct questions: obvious ones such as why? how? but also, by using the essence of the company - namely the utilisation of the full potential of ‘theatre’ language in presenting the audience with a host of sensitive experiences - the company succeeded in creating a presentation that touched on questions above and beyond the bare subject matter: What is the individual’s relationship with society? Does the oppressor also suffer? How frail and insignificant are our lives? One could go on and on.
Without a doubt, the reason for the success was the natural fusion of the location with the interpretation of the lives. The irony of the juxtaposition of three such different stories in one presentation - in effect, three lives coming to an end - could be seen, heard, smelt and felt in the autumn chill around us. A falling leaf, a cold breeze, the stink of the sheep, the odd moth drawn to the light, and of course, the ruined farmhouse itself, which was the root of it all. The blending and weaving of the installation and the site echoed the poetic interpretation of themes. Nature, after all, was responsible for all this, just as nature is responsible for the rot and decay of the living. It would have been impossible to have created the same experience in a theatre.
As is usual with Brith Gof, the company members were responsible for the research and the interpretation. One must congratulate Gwenllian Rhys and Eddie Ladd who succeeded in sustaining the dynamic of their roles, moving effortlessly between a factual, journalistic style and a style which revealed more about the characters themselves. Without these careful restrained portraits and the shadowing of their movements, technique could have taken over and swamped the production.
But a few sentences must be spared to describe the journey to the forest. As there was no intention to re-create the production anywhere else in Wales, people who wanted to see the work had to travel from all over the country to reach the specified meeting places before being transported by bus to the special location - itself a two hour journey. In all, I spent eight hours travelling that night - a cross-channel pilgrimage would have been easier. Clearly, this is a company that has confidence in its work. The journey might have alienated many of the audience beforehand, but as one of them said as he sipped his shot of whisky to keep warm, “I think the play has already started!”
And in the spirit of a pilgrimage, it was worth sacrificing time for the sensitive, unique experience we were offered. If the old debate about the need for a comfortable opera house in Wales is still going on, it would have been an eye-opener for some to see how 300 people could enjoy sitting in the autumn chill for an hour and a half to witness this very special event.
Without a doubt, Brith Gof’s already strong following will flourish after this sympathetic experience by a mature and perceptive company.