Marc Brenner


stage


RICH HARDISTY Torch Theatre, Milford Haven, Fri 28 Apr; Machynlleth Comedy Festival, Sat 29 Apr; Pontio, Bangor, Sat 20 May


In an age where standup has become a lot more personal, and in some ways serious – think Hannah Gadsby – Silly Boy finds comedian and actor Rich Hardisty dealing with experiences including self- harm and anorexia.


Mental illness, it transpires, confined him to his house for two years, yet this found him turning to laughter and the old adage of it being the best medicine/healer, considering it an art to find humour in such subjects.


Silly


standup, explores a difficult childhood which left Hardisty with an urge to hurt himself as a way of coping. But this is still a comedy show, and Hardisty aims to destigmatise these subjects by talking about them in a light and breezy manner, with himself as the ‘silly boy’ of the title.


Boy, his debut hour of


Laughing at serious past situations, and getting a laugh out of them, becomes


getting control of them. In the show he tells the audience that it’s OK to laugh, and – now able to look at


the ultimate way of


maintains that it’s all quite, well, silly that his brain’s way of coping was to self-harm.


it from a distance –


After a successful Edinburgh Fringe run, followed by appearances at London’s Soho Theatre, Hardisty is taking Silly Boy on tour, including three Welsh dates: a stop at the popular Machynlleth


will line him up amongst scores of comedy names such as Phil Kay and Jayde Adams. A ‘serious hour’ of comedy that shows things can get better.


Comedy Festival


Tickets: £12/£11.50. Info: richhardisty.com CHRIS WILLIAMS


THE DIRT Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea Fri 21 Apr


Written and performed by dance artist and poet Marianne Tuckman, The Dirt is a tragicomic solo piece about climate change which somehow incorporates pineapples. Tuckman assumes the role of the last woman on an Earth rendered unliveable by climate change, marooned in a house being overran by an incoming tide of grime and filth. Though there is, despite everything, some sort of home help available: it proves not much help at all.


Tuckman graduated from the Northern School Of Contemporary Dance with first class honours, focusing on poetry in performance afterwards. In The Dirt, a combination of theatrical dance, poetry, and a sketch comic’s appetite for taking on multiple personas, she considers how climate change has ultimately made us increasingly morbid in regards to the future – if not, you might ask, why not? – and asks the difficult question of whether having children is an option in a world of limited tomorrows. A gravely serious matter addressed with an air of absurdist comedy.


Tickets: £5-£10. Info: taliesinartscentre.co.uk CHRIS WILLIAMS


30


ES & FLO Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay Fri 28 Apr-Sat 13 May


Jennifer Lunn’s [pictured] Es & Flo is finally getting its premiere after being delayed by the pandemic. The title characters met in the 80s, as activists at Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, and fell deeply in love. They’ve been living secretly as lovers since then, but as the heartbreaking reality of dementia makes itself known, an unexpected carer


home. Flo finds she must fight to hold on to the woman she loves and the life they’ve built over the last 40 years.


arrives at their


While awaiting its premiere, Es & Flo’s script won the Popcorn Writing Award in 2020 – when actors Sharon D Clarke and Celia Imrie filmed one of its scenes from their homes during lockdown – and the Nancy Dean Lesbian Playwriting Award last year. An all-female creative team, helmed by director Susie McKenna, have fashioned a play about older lesbian love, women coming together and the power of the chosen family.


Tickets: £15. Info: wmc.org.uk CHRIS WILLIAMS


ONE OF THEM ONES Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon Fri 28 Apr


One Of Them Ones’ protagonists Frankie and Michael, siblings out in the sticks, are trying to navigate their way through the personal and social ramifications of gender identity. Subject matter its primary creator Charlie Josephine [pictured] – a non-binary writer and actor whose pronouns are they/he – knows first-hand.


Frankie, the sibling who finds the gender binary doesn’t fit them, wants to find acceptance. Then there’s brother Michael, confused by the LGBTQ+ness of it all, wishing everything – not least Frankie – could stay as it was. Yet together, they tell their story, hoping someone might take see a little of themselves in it.


Josephine’s previous work I, Joan imagined Joan Of Arc as non- binary, raising online hackles in the process, and with a stated age guidance of 12+ this new play is more of a queer coming-of-age piece, and perhaps more notable for being set away from the cities where many such stories take place.


Tickets: £14/£12. Info: brycheiniog.co.uk CHRIS WILLIAMS


ROMEO & JULIE Sherman Theatre, Cardiff Thurs 13-Wed 19 Apr


From the team behind Iphigenia In Splott and Killology comes a modern version of a classic love story. Inspired by Shakespeare, Romeo and Julie met as teenagers in Cardiff, living only streets apart but in two different worlds. Romeo is a young single dad bearing up, while Julie struggles to follow her dream of studying at Cambridge. Falling headlong into first time love, while Julie’s parents fear for them in a world of inequality.


The RADA-trained Rosie Sheehy plays Julie, while local success story Callum Scott Howells (who went to the same comprehensive school as me, albeit years later) plays Romeo, fresh from his turn as the Emcee in Cabaret.


Romeo & Julie returns to the Sherman after a run at London’s National Theatre, with the play being a co-production between these two theatres. Its writer Gary Owen and director Rachel O’Riordan have previously had joint huge success with Iphigenia…, with Owen regarded as one of Wales’ leading contemporary playwrights.


Tickets: £15-£25. Info: shermantheatre.co.uk CHRIS WILLIAMS


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