Image Mark Douet

Writer: Matt Hartley

Director: Hannah Noone

Designer April Dalton

Composer and Sound Designer Sam Jones

(4 / 5)

Reviewing a new play – and, furthermore, a one-woman play – is guaranteed to send a frisson of excitement down the spine of even the most seasoned of reviewers. The Wife of Cyncoed does that in spades, an added bonus being that the monologue is played out by none other than Vivien Parry – and what a tour de force it is for this Welsh actress!

On stage non-stop in a monologue that lasts for one and a half hours with no interval, Parry – who performed in a preview on her 60^th birthday – gives it all she has got from start to finish. Taking place in the upmarket Cardiff suburb of Cyncoed and the atmospheric Lakeside area, this – the first production of the season for the Sherman – has a make-or-break quality about it, in reference to both the plotline and the setting.

Fear you not – this monologue from the pen of writer Matt Hartley could be set pretty well anywhere. The story – that of Jayne, a newly divorced woman whose life takes an unexpected turn, offering her an opportunity that she may or may not be brave enough to take – manages to be both entertaining and poignant, a tale of self-discovery, and second chances, of a road that may or may not be taken.

A monologue is a genre that depends not only on the writing but on the delivery (think Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads and the iconic Thora Hird). In Hartley’s monologue, the multi-talented Parry, seen recently in Cabaret in London’s West End and well-known to Welsh audiences for her sterling work with Theatr Clwyd, steps up to the challenge head on. Parry taking command of the stage from her first entry. Not only does she become Jayne but in using different voices with maximum effect changes character to reflect other people in her story, in particular her two grown up children, with whom- to say the least of it – she doesn’t always see eye to eye.

Parry gives a brilliant and empathetic performance, but could do with slowing down her delivery a tad at times in the first hour. Having said that: full marks and more for amazing movement and dance, giving full justice to the underlying message, described by Hartley as “A a howl of rage against how older women are perceived and overlooked.,” and getting under the skin of the character warts and all.  Staging is at a minimum (not even a chair) but Katy Morison’s clever lighting and Sam Jones atmospheric sound track provide this with effect while remaining unobtrusive when necessary.

Could this be one for Edinburgh Fringe? Yes. For Hartley’s monologue – the story of a woman of a certain age with the message that life is for living – could be set anywhere.

Runs until 23^rd March 2024 at Sherman Theatre, Cardiff