Windsongs of the Blessed Bay (written and directed theatre presentation)
- Submitting institution
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Swansea University / Prifysgol Abertawe
- Unit of assessment
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Output identifier
- 33662
- Type
- I - Performance
- Venue(s)
- Taliesin Arts Centre
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of first performance
- February
- Year of first performance
- 2016
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Funded by Arts Council Wales, research for Windsongs of the Blessed Bay led to a prototype presentation at Swansea’s Taliesin Theatre. With changes based on audience feedback, a major ACW-funded tour followed in 2016, with performances in English and Welsh in major theatres and smaller venues throughout Wales. The play tells of a blind young woman who sails from St Bride’s Bay chasing her fisherman grandfather’s dream of a last great catch. She encounters unimagined Welsh worlds and a soul-searching internal battle. Written specifically for Theatr Cadair’s vivid high energy approach to intelligent Welsh-themed drama, the play is aimed at a broad-based popular audience. Behind the spectacle lies a rigorous investigation of how an experience of blindness might be combined with the unseen stories of Welsh history and myth to confront universal issues of loneliness and cultural identification. Residential research in St Brides’s Bay led D.J.Britton to the idea of a sea-voyage in which the stories of Wales are hauled from the deep. Britton’s own father was a merchant seaman and his mother became blind. Observing cormorants drying their wings, he recalled Asian fishmen training birds to lead them to fish and the idea of a blind voyager guided by a cormorant was born. Student Jasmine Metcalfe, who has been blind since birth, became crucial to the research, her contribution giving truth to the central character. Theatrically, Britton wanted to blend natural and mythical worlds through puppetry. Bringing Singaporean puppet-master Benjamin Ho to Wales enriched the process. The result was received enthusiastically by critics and audiences. On feedback forms, the words most used were: Excellent, enjoyable, beautiful, happy, humorous, brilliant, magical, moving, delightful, thought-provoking. Respondents reported a greater appreciation of the stories of Wales because of the play. The characters best recognised were Bran the Blessed, J.P.Morgan and St Bride.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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