A look at the 1918 Glanaman performance of Aeres Maesyfelin

It was written in Glanaman and ended its run of performances with a show in the village in April 1918.

A review was put in the Amman Valley Chronicle on April 18, 1918, which talked about the piece and why it was so special, so we will be taking a look at that review today. The review was sent in by a reader following the appearance of a cast photo of Aeres Maesyfelin in 1917 that was put in the South Wales Guardian in April.

The writer of the review – who is referred to as ‘Black Mountain’ – begins by highlighting the public perception of the play, saying: “Having heard so much that was good – not without its bearing an admixture on unfavourable criticism also – concerning ‘Aeres Maesyfelin’.”

The drama was being performed in Glanaman which the author says: “Both the place and the occasion added their quota to the significance of the performance, because, as the author explained to the house, that particular performance was the last, so far as he then knew, to be given for some time; and the place, because Glanaman, the Aeres’ birthplace, thus became the end as well as the beginning of her first adventures.”

The author continued of the accompanying programme: “It is not beneath mention to say that the very programme favourably predisposed one toward the work: there was its attractive neatness, characteristic of the Amman Valley Chronicle; there was the prefatory note explaining the connection of the revered Vicar Prichard of Llandovery.” The author continues to explain about the translations and Welsh language in the programme.

Moving onto the performance itself, the author wrote: “The staging of the play was on the whole good; the scenes were representative of the supposed conditions, and, if the work of amateurs, extremely well done; the dress, with one or two exceptions,  of which the author is undoubtedly well aware, were true to the mode prevailing in the early Stuart period; and the life and speech of the people, as seen in such habits and aspects as appeared, seemed to be faithfully copied and presented, the few anachronisms and touches of modernity being, if not inevitable, at least excusable.

“The performance ran smoothly, and was uninterrupted by unnecessary delays.” The author of the review went on to state that the play lasts for around four hours and how there was only 15 minutes worth of transitional breaks in total, praising those involved for this.

“Not many plays will in point of duration beat the 3 ¾ hours of actual acting that Glanaman house witnessed, and fewer plays could bear that length as well as did this one. Probably this latter fact is accounted for by the comparative lack of tension in the play. There are hardly any tense moments, leave alone tense scenes; attention need never reach breaking point, and is certainly never sustained on the verge of it.

“It is this absence of sustained tension which is at once the safety valve and the weakness of the play as it stands. That it is a weakness will become evident immediately. It is no unkindness to suggest that the excessive length of the performance mars its cumulative effect, for it is drawn out quite up to – and beyond – satiation point, a point which should seldom be reached and never be passed.

“Nor is it difficult to see that the drawing out is a feature of the relieving scenes rather than of the theme scenes. Now, were the theme scenes marked by great tension, especially if that were also sustained, there might be some justification for relief scenes being of some length. But the theme scenes not being so marked, the relief scenes are not justified in their current length. If there is a desire to maintain the current four hour length for the play, then there should be tenser scenes.

“With the theme scenes at their present pitch, so to speak, the relief scenes should be very much shortened and they may be shortened very much advantageously, even were the former intensified.

“The public house scenes – and this is said with the author’s explanation for their existence kept fully in mind – are certainly overworked in point of relative time.

“The author, in a play of five Acts, has thrown the time burden on the first three Acts, which occupy two and a half hours.

"The dramatic climax – which could fittingly be intensified somewhat, so as the more definitely to surpass its formidable rival, connected directly with it in plot development, the extremely effective defiance in the closing scene of the first Act, a point too early in the play for such effect as now competes with that of the climax proper – is reached in the third Act, quite appropriately in Maesyfelin, when the Lawyer, announcing and standing by the Squire’s will, changes the whole tenour of the lives of the central characters.

“From that point the whole drama is fittingly intended to work out its own end swiftly and unerringly; the movement becomes more animated, the Acts shorter – the last two together taking only 1 ¼ hours – the scenes therefore likewise shorter, and the Aeres, emerging, dominates and appropriates every event henceforth, appearing in no less than seven of the eight scenes immediately following upon the climax of the third Act, her newly-acquired dignity of Aeres Maesyfelin controlling the whole flux of things to the end, justifying splendidly and simply the happy title of Drama.”

‘Black Mountain’ praises the acting of those involved in the play, saying: “The acting generally deserved high praise, that of the central characters was very good - with emphasis on both words – reaching sometimes the level of sheer excellence. The Vicar could not be better impersonated, and the part of Aeres was delightfully and worthily filled.

“Sami Prichard did notably well. Both the Squire and his eldest son also reached high-water mark. Of the minor characters, those who did the parts of Mr Wmffre and Guto and Beti, the servants of Maesyfelin, could claim a place in any dramatic company.

"I cannot remember seeing any party, taken together, doing nearly so well: It contained no actor of merely mean merit, while several, especially the Vicar and the Aeres and those immediately related to them, showed themselves to be accomplished actors.”

‘Black Mountain’ ends the review with “Aeres Maesyfelin has come to stay both in the hearts of the best Welsh audiences and its Welsh Dramatic literature. The author is to be heartily congratulated on his work and the company on the performance of it.”

The author of the review also reiterates the need for the performance to be shortened and for more about the Vicar’s life and less on the public house scenes.

Unfortunately I have been unable to locate an image of the cast from the performance in the review, so the accompanying image is of the Gwaun Cae Gurwen Dramatic Society who performed the play in 1917.