roundup
WHAT’S ON OUR RADAR THIS MONTH.
STAGE
KEEPING
CONNECTED
pic: CAPT’ GORGEOUS
?
SOUTH WALES SECRETS #41:
Glamorgan Heritage Coast
We talk to short story writer Carys Davies,
who has been shortlisted for the Sunday
Times EFG Short Story Award.
“I feel almost like a part-outsider, part-insider, and
that’s a typical thing for a writer to write about,
things which you feel slightly on the edge about,”
explains Davies, whose was born in Llangollen,
North Wales but moved to at the age of 10.
“One of the classic things people say to writers
when they start out is ‘write about what you know’,
but I actually tend to think ‘write about what you
don’t know’. I like to travel places, to other lives,
and Wales, because there’s this kind of distance
and closeness. As I don’t live there now, it gives me
a lot of freedom to go there in my imagination.”
Having spent lots of time in her childhood visiting
South Wales, its scenery has become an important
part of Davies’ writing.
“I think physically the area of Ogmore and
Southerndown was, for me as a child, an incredibly
mysterious place that fascinated me as well.”
IT’S A HIT
The testosteronic ‘give
him the chair’ culture of
WWE isn’t something
commonly associated
with the established
class of the Hilton hotel,
BUZZ 08
Davies’s Short Story Award-nominated piece, On
Commercial Hill, is set in the Valleys and tells of the
dark secrets between a couple living there.
“It starts on the beach in Southerndown and then
it moves up into the Valleys. It’s about an English
woman who meets a man from the valleys, and
goes back with him. There’s something in his past
which she doesn’t yet know about.”
As her South Wales Secret Carys chooses a
walk from her childhood, from Merthyr Mawr to
Southerndown, which is now part of the Glamorgan
Heritage Coastal walk.
“I would go over the stepping stones in front of
Ogmore Castle, walked all the way through the
dunes, past Candlestone Castle and just along
those big flat rocks and then up to Southerndown.
For me it’s just so beautiful and mysterious and it’s
just so full of possible stories.”
but this month they are
finally going to be brought
into happy conjunction.
Sadly not through a
chandelier-swinging
grudge-match in the foyer,
but through the imposing
form of Bret ‘The Hitman’
Hart.
In an exclusive meet and
greet, followed by an only
slightly less exclusive
Q&A session, we see the
renowned wrestler in a
new light, reflecting upon
his life and times as ‘The
Excellence Of Execution’.
Trained by the infamous
Plays that appeal to young
actors can be incredibly difficult
to write, so the support shown
for teenage talent by the
National Theatre Connections
is commendable. The initiative
challenges
playwrights
to
write 10 plays to be performed
country-wide by performers
aged 13 to 19, and Welsh actors
will have the opportunity to
showcase the fruits of their hard
work at the Sherman Theatre.
The festival features encores of
acclaimed playwright Dafydd
James’s Heritage, which mixes
music and comedy for a blackly
humorous take on British
nationalism, each performance
undertaken by a different theatre
group. There’s also a plethora of
local talent taking on plays by
Luke Norris, Pauline McLynn
and Evan Placey. Energy,