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Through improvisations and discussion a play evolved using themes that had emerged during the participatory theatre research process.
"Not the Comfy Chair" a brand new game show for Ely performed by the intergenerational group 'Generation X'.
Frank and Aurelia on set
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Set in a TV studio, the pensioner presenter Aurelia Cod, assisted by Frank Williams ( life size puppet) interview a sample of young and old people from the estate about their lives. The interviewees either earn "Generation X" caps or "the Comfy Chair" which swallows them whole. (The group felt strongly that, in their play, there should be punishment for misdeeds and rewards for good behaviour.) |
| Scenes are linked by Jonathan Sparker(JS), a comic news reporter always shadowed by an inept film crew. He takes the audience 'live' to an incident outside the Chip Shop in Bishopston Road where an old man is being harassed by a group of youths. Between 'stand up' comedy routines entirely designed by himself, JS takes the play to the Chip Shop ten years into the future and then back to presenters in the studio on the sofa. |  The Chip Shop |
Ivy, Les and Bob
Ivy Pritchard, her dog Bob (who featured in the 1997 play) and her husband are the guests. As they reminisce about the old days in Ely shadow puppets operated by the young performers illustrate the scenes. This sequence features events and places which no longer exist in Ely such as a racecourse, aerial circus, steam train, jam factory and paper mill. During rehearsals the young people were very interested in the local history of their area and a little envious "It's not fair, Ely was better in them days" " Why isn't there anything like that for us for us now?" " Bet there was jobs for people then".
| A particularly engaging sequence followed using three masks to portray three stages of a life - boy, adult and old man. This was played by a young performer classified as having serious learning difficulties. Interestingly, he was the only member of the group with the ability to carry this off and without fail audiences were captivated by his performance. |
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Later Ivy Pritchard and family are the subject of a "Home Improvements" makeover through which the real home improvement is the family learning to co-operate in making a lampshade! |
The two headed puppet of Jono and Sharon makes a cameo appearance, the girl is looking for her brother while the audience keeps telling him he's "behind you". Jono's response is "Shhh, don't tell her where I am, she's always on my back!"
The play ends with all the cast on stage for the generation X Rap.
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Click the play button to hear the rap |
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Shelagh Eckett, Doreen and Les Bowring |
Performers from Glyn Derw School |
The group performed the show 11 times to audiences of primary schoolchildren, pensioners and parents, during the week of Ely festival. Performances took place at 4 venues, Caerau Community Hall, Cwrt yr Alla Primary, St.Fagans Primary, and the Glan Ely Hall at the Church of the Resurrection. All the primary schoolchildren in Ely had the opportunity to see the performance. This would have been a punishing schedule even for adult professionals and at times the wildness of the young people taxed the patience of the pensioners. However through the experience of performing to different audiences and setting up in different venues, the young people gradually began to comprehend how much they needed to work together as a team, and the play improved. By the end of the week an enormous amount of collective learning had taken place and everyone was exhausted but very proud of their achievements. The whole intergenerational group had begun to be seen as a new Ely gang named by outsiders as the 'Generation X Crew'. The evaluation team, Dr. Sue Lyle and David Hendley, saw the first and final performances and bore witness to how much the group had learnt during that week.
A final performance in the Autumn at Llanover Hall in Canton gave the cast an opportunity to perform outside their own territory. The whole of Radnor Rd. Primary school attended. They were a responsive audience and clearly enjoyed the experience enormously. Their teachers, some of whom had worked in Ely and all of whom knew it by reputation, said that they found the performance moving and were full of praise for the achievements of the intergenerational group. The reality of the participants lives had communicated to people not living in the same circumstances. (This performance was filmed and will be edited professionally so the performers can all have their own record on video.)
