Margaret Thatcher ascends to power. Think of a world where bravado reigns supreme, and only a canary would dare to emulate Julie Andrew’s singing ‘A Few of My Favourite Things’ from the musical The Sound of Music: the world of Welsh miners a day after voting in that historic general election. This is setting the audience are thrust into when they arrive to see Land of Our Fathers at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff.
The story begins with an electrical explosion down a mine trapping six miners. Included in this group are all the stock characters we need that could rival any formulaic selection of a big brother house. We have Bomber (John Cording), the old wise light relief of the piece. Along side him we have the new boy, Mostyn (Joshua Price), on his first, albeit very unlucky, day of work down the mines; it turns out that he is the canary who would dare to sing like Julie Andrews down the mine.
There is also a brother duo, the older smarter, but stuck in a Valley rut, Curly (Tomos Eames), and his younger artist brother, Chewy (Taylor Jay-Davies), who likes to dream big and wants to move to London despite his brother objections. Then we have the strong wise Polish war hero, Hovis (Robert Jezek), the calm voice of the group. Last but not least we have the troubled deputy of the mine, Chopper (Cornelius Booth), tormented by responsibility as his past comes back to haunt him.
Tomos Eames
While it may sound like the makings of a predictable and banal form of storytelling and something that doesn’t have a chance of holding your engagement for two and a half (minus the interval) it is quite the opposite. It is lively and funny throughout. The story has twists and turns and has the ability to bring any hardened theatregoer to tears.
The first thing the audience is confronted with is the set (Signe Beckmann), which is almost cinematic in positioning in the Weston studio: it looked nearly as if the play was on a screen in a whole in the wall. The set was as you may imagine any mineshaft to be where there is no way out: the walls and floor were made of coal (well, something that convincingly looked like coal at least). It is clever in its simplicity and works extremely well with Paul Robinson sublime staging; a staging that aid Chris Urch’s script to flow beautifully.
I should note that within the script they are probably scenes that could be shorter, where sometimes one might think “okay I get the picture, you’ve me what I need to know in this scene, now lets move on.” Although, I think Robinson has saved the production from feeling like this kind of a reading.
Cornelius Booth and Taylor Jay-Davies
All of the ensemble cast are, frankly, breathtaking. Despite the individualistic objectives of the characters the cast moved in rhythm as one, like any male voice choir (oh there’s that in there too). This is the wonderful basis that for all the secret and accusation within the script to be played out. The play is long enough for us to get to know all the character very well and the stories are all brought to at least some closure.
From the beginning of the play we are treated to the hilarious John Cording as Bomber, and wonderfully boyish Joshua Price, having a banter filled back and forth that you could imagine in any Valley’s local where the younger lads are always outwitted by the senior members of the crew. The play continues on this note of measuring the difference between generations within the mining community.
Eames as Curly, and Jay-Davies as Chewy, are a brilliant double-act that goes from silly sibling rivalry to desperate tenderness within the play. The temporal aspect of the play was dealt incredibly well: the transition from able body to being, as Wilfred Owen might describe it, ‘drunk with fatigue’ was superb. This was particular strong from Robert Jezek as Hovis, and Cornelius Booth as Chopper. Their physical transformations were excellently and thoughtfully executed.
Director Paul Robinson and his team have created a production where we see the break down of bravado and rise of humility. As Chopper says, this is a world where “men don’t talk about their lives” or themselves; it’s too personal – until they are faced with no exit and conversations all get a little existential.
Fantastic thought provoking production
Presented by Wales Millennium Centre, Theatre503 and Tara Finney Productions
Directed by Paul Robinson