There’s a new play written by Manon Steffan Ros doing a bit of a tour if anyone is interested. Details here …
http://www.franwen.com/events/mwgsi/
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Music, in part at least, by Ifan Sion out of Sŵnami, I notice. That could be the factor that convinces my daughter to come along.
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Ooh, it’s on at Chapter in Cardiff 3/4 Nov. I might be able to make a bid for freedom on one of those nights (not sure which), and it would be lovely to meet up with any other Cardiff MSF fans…
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Yes, Médecins Sans Frontières are terrific, aren’t they? 
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The sticking-out-tongue-emoji doesn’t look quite rude enough for the situation. 
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Just remembered that I booked myself a ticket for this tomorrow night on a whim! Any other Cardiff bods going?
What did you think of it @netmouse? Was it heavy going at all?
Hm, yes it was rather! It was always going to be a difficult theme, but I’m not sure this was her best work to be honest.
I found it a bit slow, the characters doing rather a lot of standing about crying / breathing heavily to ‘atmospheric’ music. (Before you actually felt like crying with them, in my opinion, which gets a bit wearing!)
I didn’t bump into a single person I knew either, so maybe I was just being a grump! Oh well…
It was sold out both nights though, which is basically good.
I saw it last night in Carmarthen with Tegwen who is a massive fan of MSR. I found it incredibly powerful, and the long, reflective pauses added to that - it gave you a chance, in a ‘minutes silence’ kind of fashion, to think rather deeply about the subject matter and the different stages of the story. I might pester Ifan Siôn Davies for a copy of the soundtrack.
The one thing I had a little trouble with was the incredibly heavy Cofi accent of one of the secondary characters. Sitting halfway back in the auditorium, with my hearing beginning to show the effect of a lifetime of listening to music at too high a volume, there were times when I just couldn’t catch what she was saying. But it didn’t affect my understanding of what was going on.
I think the tour is coming to an end now, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a version of this as a one-off on S4C in the future.
Frân Wen’s next production is a tour of Gwyneth Glyn’s Ŵy, Chips a Nain, which travels the country early next year: http://www.franwen.com/events/wychipsnain/ , though, again, it looks like a long trip for those of us in the cultural vacuum of mid Powys.
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I’m glad you enjoyed it, and that the things that irritated me worked for you. I hope my grumpiness didn’t put anyone off! (I certainly wouldn’t have volunteered that review if Dee hadn’t asked - no doubt hoping for something a bit more positive for the newsletter!)
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