Utah Bride, the emotionally-wrought debut full-length play by Carmen Medway Stephens, proved a sell-out on its 2012 tour and has now been adapted into the Welsh language for a new tour of Wales which is currently under way.
I caught up with Carmen to find out about the motivation behind Priodferch Utah and why it has reportedly been moving audiences to tears.
Sharon Morgan as Rebecca and Sara Lloyd-Gregory as Alice in Utah Bride.
The play is a two-hander set in the valleys in the post-Thatcher 90s, featuring Sharon Morgan as Rebecca (she also directs and was behind the adaptation into Welsh) and Gwawr Loader as her daughter Alice. The English language version starred Sara Lloyd-Gregory in the role of Alice.
At 16, Alice rejects her Welsh Methodist upbringing and runs away to marry a Mormon and live in Utah, America. But four years (and three kids) later she is back home in the valleys for a night of recrimination, revelation and healing which takes place during a night-long heated discussion with her mother.
Carmen told me: “It’s full of laughs and tears. It’s a play about being Welsh, a culture under threat, fighting against this and having a dream but then realising the grass is not greener on the other side.
“We all feel there is something out there better for us – but in reality we have to recognise what qualities we already have. The themes are universal.
“The performance is like a mountain to climb because it is so emotional and the audience often sit there in stunned silence at the end and then the crying starts.”
The play began as a script-in-hand performance at Chapter Arts Centre in 2011 before being granted Arts Council Wales funding. It was developed into a full-length play and toured successfully in 2012.
Carmen is delighted to now be bringing it to more venues in Wales and accessing a whole new audience with this tour.
It is loosely based on the experiences of one of Carmen’s close friends who met and married a Mormon at 16 and moved to Yorkshire but Carmen is quick to point out that much of what happens in Priodferch Utah came from her imagination and her experiences as a teenager growing up in the Garw valley.
She said: “The play’s set in 1991 and it really shows what life was like for women living in the valleys.
Sharon Morgan as Rebecca and Sara Lloyd-Gregory as Alice in Utah Bride.
“Rebecca would have given birth to Alice not long before the miners’ strike when infrastructure was fractured so it examines what it was like then.
“I grew up at that time and I remember people fighting in the square with the police and the shock of seeing grown men cry and patriarchal figures lost.
“The people of the valleys put a brave face on it and there was a lot of strength but behind closed doors there was anguish and sometimes domestic violence.
“It’s not meant to be detrimental to the Mormon faith because I used to hang out with lots of people who were Mormons and they were good friends.
“Basically it’s history repeating itself, Rebecca and Alice have quite similar experiences.
“I think it’s upsetting because this was the experience of some people in the valleys but I wanted the audience to feel like redemption is possible, forgiveness can be found and there is always a way back.
“The themes are universal. Even though it is set in the 90s, about a time I witnessed, it is very much about today’s recession.”
Carmen says Gwawr brings a new feistiness to the role of Alice and the translation has created new moments of humour that differ from the English version. She also can’t praise Sharon enough for capturing the dialect and idioms while keeping the essence of the play. Carmen herself came from a Welsh-speaking background but didn’t carry it on into adult life.
The play was the first for Carmen’s theatre company 1.618, which she is in the process of rebranding as Theatr Gwalia (the ancient name for Wales). She has been approached by National Theatre Wales about writing a new play, has a novel in the pipeline and at least four dramatic ideas in progress - not bad for a sleep-deprived mum of a new baby.
She said: “My aim with Theatr Gwalia will be to tell authentic stories about Wales that matter to real people and our first project will be a play about women who make bread called Bara Heddiw.
“I would like people to be able to access the shows without having to get into their cars or incur expenses travelling. That was our aim with Utah Bride and that’s why we staged the English language run in so many small village halls. This time around we have been trying to reach a new Welsh language speaking audience.”
The tour of Priodferch Utah will visit:
Ammanford Miners Theatre on 6 February 2014
The
Lyric Theatre Carmarthen on 7 February 2014
The Market Theatre, Cowbridge on 8 February 2014
Galeri, Caernarfon on 11 February 2014
Neuadd Dwyfor Pwllheli
on 12 February 2014
The Welfare in Ystradgynlais on 15 February 2014
