Becasue Art Isn't Easy

Emily Slee surveys Cardiff’s current theatrical scene

Stephen Sondheim tells us ‘Art isn’t easy’. He meant I think both its creation and its discovery. I left Cardiff five years ago when I was just beginning to discover theatrical art myself, after a five year journey that has, arts-wise taken in the good (London) the bad (Nottingham) and the French-Canadian (Montreal), all seasoned with a generous helping of trips to the Mecca of the arts world, New York City. This miscellany of theatrical experience, both observing and practicing has left me with some might say extremes of taste. I can (and have) in a short space of time take in a blockbuster musical (my first greatest and most guilty love) a small but provocative play (I have no time for kitchen sink dramas that are so ubiquitous in the West End and provincial theatres) and equally happily attend a live art show where the performer bleeds on stage and impales himself on a baseball bat. Clearly I was going to struggle in Cardiff.

I considered my options, the most obvious being Cardiff’s big theatres, the traditional New Theatre and the Millennium Centre. The New Theatre has long been for most in Cardiff their first and main experience of theatre; it’s where we see the Panto at Christmas (though actually the first one I remember was a year ago when John Barrowman was in it but that’s another story). It was the beginning for me as for many, so like Maria in The Sound of Music, the beginning seemed a very good place to start.

Or perhaps not; I sat through a tediously long production of Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, a dated play made to feel even more so by Peter Hall’s snail paced direction and lengthy and unnecessary scene changes. Next came a moderately enjoyable production of Andrew ‘the Lord’ Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love. I saw Les Dennis play the fool-literally in a French farce which would have been a passable, even endearing, am-dram production if performed in a local church hall, but as a professional production fell far short. In addition, despite being a version of Goldoni’s original and by all accounts uproariously funny original, this production managed to neither be funny or original (thinking that the audience would be won over by rugby jokes, falling in food, and Les Dennis was surely a mistake for The Wales Theatre Company and did nothing to restore my faith in theatre in Wales).

This production, though bad and an embarrassing representation of Welsh Theatre, was nothing compared to the final production I’ll mention at the New Theatre here, though actually the production was so brilliant in it’s mediocrity that it doesn’t warrant mention of any kind except that it achieved what no other performance has done before - it made me want to leave at the interval; and if I hadn’t been in the company of people who wished to stay believe me I would have. These people, it’s sad to say, are the New Theatre’s target audience, those who will happily sit through whodunits and kitchen sink dramas with whichever round of ex-soap stars are testing their theatrical mettle this year and year after year. And that’s ok. Really it is, people are kept in work by these productions, and a willing audience is clearly there. And occasionally, just occasionally the New Theatre gets an injection of life be it from an excellent touring musical such as 42nd Street last year, imported hook line and dance belt from the Broadway production, or the return of the Royal Shakespeare Company and of course their annual pantomime, a tradition even this theatrical snob hopes long continues (particularly if it involves John Barrowman). But where to go for some excitement? For something a little different? Something, dare I say, challenging?

Still failing to find any underground scene in Cardiff I also turned to the hulking Armadillo in the bay, The Millennium Centre. The Millennium Centre has not had a good year in many respects, losing a great deal of money and suffering bad press as a result. The people of Cardiff seem reluctant to embrace this centre and after a year searching for a theatrical fix in Cardiff I have to ask why? The Centre is misrepresented I believe, many people confusing it with an Opera house, others thinking it only houses musicals, but at the Millennium Centre in the last year I’ve got my fix of several big flashy and yes - camp – musicals; I’ve seen quiet little plays and innovative dance works; I saw one of my favourite singers perform; I experienced Opera for the first time and loved it; I’ve seen free performances in the foyer, seen art exhibitions on the stairs and most important of all made extensive use of their free toilet facilities. In all seriousness, just glance over that list (omitting perhaps the toilet reference), and what more could we possibly ask an arts institution to offer? And it’s not only that these productions are there, it’s that they’re good.

First to those Operas and musicals: I don’t claim any authority on the former, never having seen one. That said having worked backstage on the Welsh National Opera’s new production of Aida this year I defy anyone to hear the chorus in full voice and not be moved. I only heard them from behind the scenes and each night never failed to be moved by the sheer power of the music, and when they return in the autumn for a new season I plan on being the other side of the stage to see it for myself. Second to the musicals, something on which I do claim authority, The Millennium Centre certainly has the technical finesse to put on large-scale musicals and those it is attracting are certainly impressive. The Centre’s main coups this year, The Producers and Chitty Chitty Bang (the former of which I saw in December) were as impressive as the London and New York productions, every bit as enjoyable and entertaining. In addition White Christmas and The Wedding Singer were of equally impressive calibre to this notoriously hard-to-impress Musical connoisseur. The Millennium Centre is also proving a strong house for the Musical try-outs the theatre’s producers pick to test material prior to the West End - the hugely successful Never Forget which began in Cardiff is now settled into a London run, and the Centre is hoping to follow that success with Flash dance later this year. Neither is exactly high art it’s true, but they are entertaining works and illustrate that Cardiff is viewed as a prime theatrical target.

Big budget and flashy is not all I found in the Millennium Centre, I also discovered several small gems lurking in the smaller theatres. The Weston Studio is undoubtedly one of Cardiff’s untapped theatrical gems, housing a couple of hundred seats it’s a fully flexible space that has the added bonus of being a stone’s throw from several bars, the perfect house for a small short play that lets out in time for a few drinks afterwards to discuss it. A good example of this space being put to good use was the premier production of South Wales Theatre collective and their version of Patrick Maber’s Closer. The play and the production, although not a radical departure from previous incarnations, proves small independent companies are out there in Wales giving theatre a go, and this gave me hope. Another aspect that gave me hope was the dance space hidden away in the rear of the Millennium Centre, where a highlight of my theatrical year overall was Marc Rees’s glorious Gloria Days, a biography in dance, combining breathtaking movement with humour and camp, while still telling a story. For me, theatrical perfection.

So Cardiff is capable of intimate perfection, of new works pushing foreword, of new giving home to new artists pushing out and established favourites, side by side. So do we just accept this as our lot here in Cardiff? Occasional shots of imported brilliance; even more occasional home-grown gems rising to the surface? I had become spoiled to some degree elsewhere, spoiled by choice, spoiled by calibre of production, and spoiled by pushing my own comfort zone in theatre, and seeing the kinds of things I never dreamed I’d enjoy or learn from. But should this mean I don’t demand or at least dream of a similar standard, a similar sense of adventure here in Cardiff? I’m sure we have the capacity and the talent for it, and I’m determined to find it. To quote another theatrical great Tony Kushner, ‘there is an ethical obligation to hope.’ And it is hope of finding the kind of theatrical experience I long for here that keeps me going out and looking.

© 2008 Emily Slee

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