In this interview Rhys Payne interviews Hamed Amiri writer of The Boy With Two Hearts, adapted by Phil Porter now showing at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff.

You can find out more about the production and book tickets here.

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Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff. Itself an imposing building and host to much brilliant theatre and this was no exception as it hosted the first Welsh refugee story to be brought to the stage. The Boy With Two Hearts, is a play based on the book of the same name by local author Hamed Amiri and adapted for stage by Phil Porter.

The scene is set, it is Afghanistan in the year 2000. The Taliban are rapidly taking over the country and imposing intolerable laws, people speak out but sadly to their detriment as Hamed and his family soon discover.

Their lives change overnight and soon begins a race against time to leave their homeland…a race for survival. The play tells the story of how Hamed and his family embarked on their perilous journey to safety, the hardships and the dangers they encountered enroute, the people who were there to take from them what little they had and the humanity shown by others. It portrayed a family bound by love, by commitment to each other and by the courage and determination to succeed.

As the story unfolds we learn about each individual member of the family, their hopes, their desires, their dreams. It gives a realisation that people are the same the world over, all striving for the same things, the right to live a life without fear, without hardship and most importantly of all a life of freedom. During the play we also learn a lot about one of the brothers life-threatening condition and the treatment he so desperately needs.

The acting was incredible, within minutes you were convinced that this was the family themselves and they weren’t actors playing the parts. The set was grimly atmospheric, the addition of the displayed dialogue was genius and the live vocals created a haunting backdrop. The story played on your every emotion, it was heartfelt, thought provoking, humorous, happy, sad…and real. I can say with all honesty that this play not only made me happy and sad in equal measure but left me thinking, it made me realise how little I know about the plight of others and how little I can do to help

3 Nights Only! The TIGERFACE SHOW. (AGES 14+ SHOW LENGTH 70 MINS.) The Riverfront, Newport. Thursday 21, Friday 22 & Saturday 23 October 2021 at 7.15pm Tickets – £12, concessions – £9

The TigerFace Show is a funny and irreverent comedy performance about our expectations of adulthood, asking us to re-evaluate what it is we really want to be when we grow up whilst demanding we find some child-like happiness in adulthood.

Performed as a mad and frantic hour of physical comedy, TigerFace attempts to re-create the last ever episode of his old kids tv serial The TigerFace Show.

The performance quickly unfurls into a semi-autobiographical, audience responsive, ragged-scream-party-piece, that’s one part misery, two parts joyful.

All audience members will receive FREE Piña Colada!*

*There will be no Piña Colada. This show will explore themes around childhood, alcohol and mental health.

For more information on this production and to book go here

“Anfamol” is a fast paced and shocking insight into the life of a single mother living through the COVID-19 Pandemic

This was my first experience of live theatre in two years, and a new one- as I used the Sibrwd App to access the translation of this Welsh performance. Overall, I found the app fantastic, easy to use, and not at all off-putting, especially considering the style of the piece and the one-way monologue that was being delivered. Utilising the voice of Bethan Ellis Owen could only have made it better.

The play went through stages and had a clear sense of mission. Ani is a lawyer, she is also a single woman- yet she longs for a child. We get the feeling that even though she is a successful woman and has achieved a lot, there is still a gap in her life. After getting pregnant via a sperm bank, Ani starts to experience the struggles of motherhood. When it is time for her to return back to work, Ani is relieved, only to find out that the COVID-19 pandemic has hit and she must stay at home with her son. Rhiannon Boyle must be applauded for the bravery in her writing as well as her skill to bring together the chaos of a story like this one into a well-paced timeline of moments, which we can follow and observe.

The character of Ani was well-thought out- she was brutally honest and raw, which made the audience latch on to her every word from the beginning of the story. Bethan Ellis Owen portrayed the character with authenticity, and presented an energy which engaged the audience at every stage.

The set design by Amy Jane Cook was simplistic and allowed Bethan Ellis Owen to establish the fourth wall. The audience were observing her story from above which I felt was in keeping with the themes of the play: Ani’s loneliness throughout the story, as well as her constant longing for approval from outsiders- e.g her parents, her family members, her nct group, and, of course, the audience. Though her monologue was veracious and really funny at times, there were moment’s where we saw Ani doubting herself in her speech, questioning her morals and some of her beliefs around feminism, which was a clear indicator of the outside pressures pushed onto her. As a woman she is experiencing the blurred lines between what she really thinks and feels, and what she is told she should think and feel. This doubt continues throughout the play and as Ani starts to lose her identity, we recognise that in her, her monologue becomes more chaotic, more disturbed, less positive and vibrant, and she is no longer the Ani we once knew.

Ani’s story is dark and “Anfamol” did a brilliant job of raising awareness of the struggles that many mothers would have gone through during the pandemic. So much so, that I was expecting the play to end on a commentary of the political and social issues of today. However in this case, Ani was lucky to be able to access the right support which gave her a positive new start in life. It is clear that Ani was in a much more privileged position than some women would be. Boyle’s purpose may not have been to slander the system, however she did an amazing job of raising awareness and showing women that they can get the support they need- and that’s ok too.

You can find out more about the production and book tickets here

‘Rent Party’ is the latest production by working class led theatre company Common Wealth. Based in Cardiff and Bradford and run by directors Rhiannon White & Evie Manning, Common Wealth are pioneers of championing stories of working class people, by working class people, in their own communities. Rent Party is no exception.

Held at Rumney Conservative Club (no the irony of that isn’t lost on anyone), the audience are invited to grab a pint before they head in to the main space. With tables laid out cabaret style, an open dance floor and a small stage at the back, this performance could be your Nan’s birthday party at the community hall, complete with the ubiquitous tinsel, balloons and disco lighting.

The performers hand out party rings, Haribos and jelly shots as a pianist plays soft jazz renditions of “All of Me” and “As Time Goes By”, creating a warm and inviting atmosphere.

Inspired by Harlem Rent Parties of 1920s America, where working class black folks would perform to pay their rent, “Rent Party” seeks to bring this concept to life with an unapologetically Welsh twist. The show was originally staged Manchester by director Darren Pritchard, but is now being reimagined with artists from across the country, and this particular collaboration with Common Wealth theatre succeeds in creating what the programme describes as “a kaleidoscopic picture of what it means today to be gifted, Welsh and working class.”

At the start of the show some audience members are handed vouchers, and we’re told by our compere Stuart Bowden, that the four performers will each now sing for their supper. We must decide which performer’s story is worth more of our vouchers, and therefore, who can pay their rent this month. 

Each performer in turn gets to showcase their unique cabaret talent and talk movingly of their own experience in a monologue navigating class, race, gender and sexuality growing up in Wales.

Bowden, in a high ponytail, black spandex and heels describes himself as the “Margaret Thatcher of this Conservative club”, as he skilfully guides us through the worlds of each of the performers. Each cabaret performance is interspersed with a party game led by Bowden, including a memorable game of limbo where the height of the bar represents social barriers like public sector pay cuts, the average wage, or 1 million people in poverty. It’s more fun than it sounds.

First up is Darnell Williams who raps about Afrofuturism, hope, and coming into his power as a working class Welsh boy from Cardiff. He remembers thinking “no one is gonna make a black boy from Ely famous” but then he reconsiders, remembering black Welsh heroes like Shirley Bassey and Colin Jackson.

Next is Yasmin Goulden whose superb dancing skills run throughout the show. She dances to 1920s style music in a banana skirt: an homage to Josephine Baker. Yasmin talks about her struggles growing up in Swansea having moved from Malaysia, with racist comments and often “being the only brown girl in the room”. She comments “the arguments would start about anything but would always end being about my skin”, and ends her monologue by reclaiming her power as a talented, Welsh working class woman.

A highlight of the show includes Emilie Parry-Williams, a talented singer from Pontypool whose dream of studying at a London music conservatoire is crushed when her teachers make it clear they don’t believe a working class girl deserves to be there. Emilie’s performance of ‘I Could’ve Danced All Night’ (a song sung by a character whose ‘common’ accent has been smoothed out by an upper class man in order to win a bet) brings the house down.

The final powerful performance comes from Jude Thoburn-Price who reads to us from her “book of truths”. This is a piece of performance poetry-come-rap that talks movingly about the effect raising the retirement age has had on her life, the breakdown of her marriage, the freedom of getting older, oh and also the scourge of the dreaded itchy “pound pants”!

The performance can be rowdy and raucous during the upbeat dance and rap sequences (including a RuPaul’s Drag Race style lipsync battle), but is also gentle and intimate, with the performers speaking to us casually and conversationally about their lives.

There’s an undeniable tension in creating a scenario where working class people perform their trauma and show off their talents, in order for us the audience to decide who is ‘worthy’ of paying rent this month. The show displays for us how capitalism has created a false idea of a deserving and undeserving poor, the myth of the meritocracy, the barriers faced by people in society because of the community where they were raised. The show seeks to problematise these ideas, showing you the people affected most by the policies of austerity, and celebrating an array of dazzling talents from working class people.

It’s also just a lot of rowdy fun!

You can find more information on the companies work here