Crossing the Prairie & Other Rehearsal Metaphors
The Patagonian steppe of 1865 seemed a pretty desolate place.
Dry, flat and forever. Even now, left & right turns are a novelty as you drive inland from the Atlantic.
It’s a place more akin to Mars than Merthyr.
A daunting journey, fraught with dangers, failures, and guanacos. Our one-and-a-bit weeks in 2015 Splott hardly compare.
They worked for survival. We work to remember. Their tools were clever women with irrigation systems, and a generous native people. Ours are performance, music, and a great big warehouse in Abercwmboi.
But we’ve made strides of our own, as we try to make sense of this remarkable story of pipe-dreams, struggles, conflicts and kindness. As we hit the half way mark of rehearsals - which have thankfully been more fertile than our subject matter once was - I find myself exited by the scale of the thing.
'Epic' is a word that’s being banded about, which is fitting. An epic impression of an epic place.
{150} runs from 27 June - 11 July