Output details

Dawns Ysbrydion (09.02.63) : A performance, featuring dance, text and music exploring the concurrence of the three-month winter freeze of 1962-3 and the bombing of the site of Tryweryn reservoir near Bala. The pre-performance lecture, and the poetic texts included in the show, examine the relationship between physical theatrical performance, political action, environment and climate. Presented as part of AHRC Landscape and Environment network project ‘Snows of Yesteryear: Narrating Extreme Weather’

A devised physical theatre performance including music and text exploring the concurrence of two events during 1962-3: the three-month winter freeze and the bombing of the site of Tryweryn reservoir dam near Bala on February 9 1963.

Performed on the evening of June 16th, 2013 at the Emily Davies Studio, Aberystwyth University, to accompany an activity entitled "Cymanfa". Preceded by a lecture by Dr. Roger Owen which set the context for the main themes of the piece. The piece is recorded on video; there are pictures of the rehearsal and performance process; a 15 minute film by Dr. Roger Owen, and the development of the whole process is on the web at http://eira.llgc.org.uk/category/performance/.

The research questions associated with the performance arose from the AHRC network ‘Snows of Yesteryear: Narrating Extreme Weather’ project’s study of extreme weather events, their documentation and effect. The project’s emphasis on the experience of notating and understanding instances of severe weather as a much slower and broader activity of climatic flux provided the main challenge to performance. How could theatrical performance, with its continuously implicit reference to the body, encompass the relationship between different kinds or orders of action taking place at different scales of time and space?

This was at the heart of the collaboration between Eddie Ladd (performer), Rhodri Davies and Lee Patterson (musicians), Cai Tomos (choreographer) and Roger Owen (rehearsal documentation, direction, lecture and show text).

Owen’s contribution involved creating and presenting the texts (Item 7), directing and advising during rehearsals, presenting the Convention lecture (see Items 5 and 6), documenting aspects of the devising and rehearsal process photographically (final CD in Item 2) and shooting and editing the Process Document DVD (both Item 13). Owen’s aim was to counterbalance the performance’s physical aspects, its political narrative, and the more remote ‘atmospheric’ context.

Dance theatre performance featuring, dance, text and music. The performance explores the concurrence of the three-month winter freeze of 1962-3 and the bombing of the site of Tryweryn reservoir near Bala on February 9 1963. The pre-performance lecture and poetic texts included in the show examine the relationship between physical theatrical performance, political action, environment and climate; presented as part of AHRC Landscape and Environment network project ‘Eira Ddoe: Cofio Tywydd Eithafol/ Snows of Yesteryear: Narrating Extreme Weather’.