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Miners’ strike drama hits the wrong notes
DAVID NICHOLSON is disappointed that an ambitious telling of the strike from a Welsh perspective disregards the collective struggle
Odyssey '84 at the Sherman Theatre.
[Mark Douet]
KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society
GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy
STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock
ODYSSEY ’84
Sherman Theatre, Cardiff
PLAYRIGHT Tim Price’s ambitious retelling of the South Wales miners’ contribution to the heroic but doomed year-long strike against pit closures in the mid-1980s is clever, warm and oddly repulsive in its individualism.
Fresh from his success with his play Nye about Bevan and his creation of the NHS, Price has turned his attention to another labour movement epic, weaving the story of the South Wales miners’ part in the strike based on the Greek tale of Homer’s The Odyssey.
The device works well in parts, showing the journey of Rhodri Meilir’s reluctant striker John O’Donnell from a nervous public speaker to travelling the world collecting money for the strike.
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