I was lucky enough to review some wonderful plays this year [2024], wearing one of my other hats as editor of the hyperlocal website Rhiwbina Info (named Information Platform of the Year for 2024/25 in the Wales Prestige Awards, since you ask!).
Three of the very best were at the same theatre – Cardiff’s Sherman Theatre, whose website states: “We make and curate uplifting, meaningful and relevant theatre of the highest quality. We premiere new plays which tell local stories with global resonance”.
That is all certainly true of the three plays I have in mind: The Wife of Cyncoed by Matt Hartley and starring Vivien Parry, The Women of Llanrumney by Azuka Oforka and starring Nia Roberts and Suzanne Packer, and Odyssey ’84 by Tim Price and starring Rhodri Meilir and Sara Gregory.
Below are some excerpts from my reviews and links to read the whole thing, if you’d like to.
A one-woman play about the life of an ordinary, just-retired hospital administrator in the North Cardiff suburbs may not sound like the most entertaining night at the theatre. But it is!
This is an engrossing, amusing, and often moving play with lots of laughs, some tears, plenty of dancing, and there’s even sex.
Now with time on her hands, her coming years seem well mapped out as ‘Nanny Daycare’, struggling to maintain her relationship with her adult children – a busy daughter living locally with her own family and a single son with his posh job in London.
A chance encounter with an attractive granddad and his impressive deltoid muscles (that hospital job taught her some useful anatomy) in the playground at Roath Park Lake prompts unexpected lust, which leads to love, which leads to an exciting and scary opportunity and a huge decision to make.
Directed by Hannah Noone, this is a wonderfully entertaining and sometimes moving night at the theatre. The sex and ‘strong language’ mean it’s not for children or those offended by such things, but for anyone else, I would strongly recommend it – even if it made me aware of my inadequate deltoids!
Wales’s role in slavery is thrown into the spotlight in a remarkable and powerful new play at the Sherman Theatre.
Azuka Oforka’s historical drama The Women of Llanrumney is often moving, sometimes surprisingly funny, and at times absolutely horrific in its portrayal of 18th century slaves and their owners.
Set on the Llanrumney plantation (named after the the South Wales village home of its owners, the Morgan family) in Jamaica in 1765, it focuses on the lives of three women.
The Women of Llanrumney is the full-length debut play by Azuka Oforka, an alumna of Sherman Theatre’s Unheard Voices writer development programme. And what a debut! This an outstanding piece of writing – entertaining, moving, and educational, without lecturing.
It’s [set in] a society of inhuman cruelty, where people are seen as animals to be bought and sold. But in this remarkable play, thanks to a supremely talented cast and creative team, the humanity shines through it all.
This is a truly oustanding play, which deserves to be seen by a larger audience. It has another week to run, but all performances are currently sold out. I really hope it can find another home, perhaps go on tour, or find its way to our screens in some form.
Odyssey ’84 – whose press night was last night (Tuesday 15 October) – tells the story of the 1984 miners’ strike in the form of Homer’s Odyssey – a tale of wandering far from home, facing unexpected trials, before finally returning and having to adjust to a new life.
As we follow our Odysseus, John O’Donnell (Rhodri Meilir), we experience violence, betrayal, death, and despair, but in the end, much stronger forces prevail – compassion, friendship, love, and community.
While Homer’s Odysseus is at the mercy of the Gods, for John there are more Earthly figures driving the narrative – Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and National Union of Mineworkers’ (NUM) president Arthur Scargill.
As one character summarises it: “You know the Government are arseholes, but the NUM are arseholes as well. It’s like our lives are turned upside down because they can’t do their jobs. It’d be sorted by tea time if you took them out and stuck a couple of our mams in there.”
It’s typical of the genius of this play to present us with a big idea, then cleverly balance it with a laugh about mundane, Welsh working-class life.
But there’s truth in it. You just know that the mams really would sort this out. The women here get things done. While the men like John act on their emotions, the women like Penny focus on what matters and make sure everyone gets fed and keeps clean.
This is a stunning piece of theatre – thought-provoking, entertaining, challenging, but ultimately uplifting. It will make you laugh, it will make you sad, and it will make you think.
Huge congratulations to the teams behind these three productions and to everyone at the Sherman. Here’s to more “uplifting, meaningful and relevant theatre of the highest quality” in 2025 and beyond!
If you’re involved in the performing arts, maybe the services of Weltch Media could be of help.
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