In this week's 'Western Mail', under the heading 'Access For All' Merthyr's absentee AM ( he lives in Penarth and sends his children to school there) and Heritage Minister Huw Lewis outlines his views on the state of the arts in Wales.
Echoing fellow Labourite Prof. Dai Smith, Chair of the Welsh Arts Council,
he uses the National Theatre and ,in particular, their production of 'The Passion', as a symbol of this inclusivity.
Lewis has seldom championed the arts in Merthyr Tudful and his only real contribution was the advocacy of the Theatre Royal as a venue as opposed to the Soar Chapel, which actually became one!
Outside Merthyr, he has taken scant interest in the fight to save the Dylan Thomas Centre as Cymru's only regular literature venue, or, equally significantly, to save Gwent Theatre and other theatre in education groups such as Theatr Powys and Spectacle from the Arts Council's axe.
When I confronted Prof. Smith about this destruction of theatre in education, he merely pointed out that he would sooner have a National Theatre any day ; as though the choice were inevitable.
Now, I would sooner have both and the money to come from finance wasted on the monarchy and armed forces, or even spending less on elitist opera. However, given the choice, I would claim that theatre in education makes art far more accessible, especially to the very young people Huw Lewis claims to prioritise.
Certainly, as Lewis implies, productions like 'The Passion' gave the people of Port Talbot a genuine sense of involvement and focus for a few days.
However, this was temporary and could even be compared to Michael Heseltine's infamous Garden Festivals. One such was created at Ebbw Vale, of course, and its lasting legacy is an estate of new houses and a retail park!
Compared to groups like Gwent Theatre, who developed impressively over years of hard work, the approach of the National Theatre is akin to an arts invasion force made up of local boys made good (Michael Sheen), huge rock bands willing to mutilate their own songs for the overall concept (The Manics with 'Design For Life') and the predicatably safe Owen Sheers to devise a script which often sounded laughably absurd.
Gwent Theatre and their ilk, however, represented a commitment to schools and communities over a long period and if Lewis argues that the arts needs 'access for all', then he should be planning a scheme to resurrect theatre in education, only this time on a Wales-wide basis.
The National Theatre may be commendably experimental in form, but it is also extremely conventional in content. It would have been more daring to have used a version of 'The Passion' story which made analogies between Dic Penderyn and Christ, both martyrs of course.
I doubt very much that Lewis knows what's happening in the arts. It's all very well saying that Treorci is more important than the Millennium Centre, but venues like the Parc and Dare rely almost entirely on outside acts to bring the revenue in.
His idea of the arts is to bring opera to a converted chapel, while what is needed is a more community-based and dynamic policy.
Now, not only do we need theatre in education groups throughout Cymru, but residencies at these, whereby dramatists can work with local groups , doing workshops and putting on productions. This happened very successfully in the past, with playwrights like Charles Way and Greg Cullen at Gwent and Powys respectively.
I've concentrated on drama simply because that was Lewis's focus, but in literature much greater access should be encouraged through a series of Young People's Litfests, such as the one organised in Merthyr last year, when many schools took part in a day of workshops and readings.
Lewis's twin interests in opera and Shakespeare merely illustrate his elitist view of the arts.
What will the next National Theatre project be? 'Macbeth' in Merthyr written in Valleys dialect? Well, second thoughts, that might be........
Interestingly, he states - ' But we want organisations to know we are standing by them during this very difficult period.'
So why didn't he intervene to save the likes of Gwent Theatre and the Dylan Thomas Centre?
His claim about 'access for all' is pure spin : it has no substance without
clear policies which will have a lasting affect.
As in the past, Labour's philosophy is one of giving the people what is good for them, not involving people to devise their own creations. This top-down, Stalinist mentality has barely changed since the days of Bethesda Arts Centre in Merthyr, when they refused to support it and turned it into a Job Club.
The arts are happening now despite, rather than because of the Minister's encouragement, yet groups and individuals are feeling the impact of the Cuts and receiving negligible backing. He's full is talk, but has failed to act.
I offer the following poem to show there's more to Valleys' culture than opera in church halls........yes, there's KFC!
EWMAN ADVERT
I woz standin at-a bus stop
right by-a KFC
bastin an bakin in-a smell
of chicken fat an chip oil,
waitin f’r a number 9 t Irwin.
The low mornin sun
woz shinin straight at me,
my jacket starts cracklin,
it wuz ot as an oven,
my arms like two drumsticks.
When-a bus come
I couldn wave it down,
I woz totelee paralyzed!
A sign cross my t-shirt read –
‘Colonel Sanders Needs You’
like an army recrewtment poster.
I tried t speak t passin people
an on’y come out with en noises;
theyer dog saluted is leg
an pisses all over my jeans.
The reek ad got inta my bones,
my nose a parson’s,
my skin nothin but breadcrumbs.
‘Ee looks delicious! I’d love t eat im!’
some kids shout, poking
an proddin t make me cluck.
Then, sudden as it ud appened,
the wind changes direction,
clouds cover up-a sun
an rain dampens down the stinkin air.
A free man agen, I forget Irwin
an wing back up the ill
like some petrified chicken
about t ave its throat slit
an its guts bagged in plastic.
Echoing fellow Labourite Prof. Dai Smith, Chair of the Welsh Arts Council,
he uses the National Theatre and ,in particular, their production of 'The Passion', as a symbol of this inclusivity.
Lewis has seldom championed the arts in Merthyr Tudful and his only real contribution was the advocacy of the Theatre Royal as a venue as opposed to the Soar Chapel, which actually became one!
Outside Merthyr, he has taken scant interest in the fight to save the Dylan Thomas Centre as Cymru's only regular literature venue, or, equally significantly, to save Gwent Theatre and other theatre in education groups such as Theatr Powys and Spectacle from the Arts Council's axe.
When I confronted Prof. Smith about this destruction of theatre in education, he merely pointed out that he would sooner have a National Theatre any day ; as though the choice were inevitable.
Now, I would sooner have both and the money to come from finance wasted on the monarchy and armed forces, or even spending less on elitist opera. However, given the choice, I would claim that theatre in education makes art far more accessible, especially to the very young people Huw Lewis claims to prioritise.
Certainly, as Lewis implies, productions like 'The Passion' gave the people of Port Talbot a genuine sense of involvement and focus for a few days.
However, this was temporary and could even be compared to Michael Heseltine's infamous Garden Festivals. One such was created at Ebbw Vale, of course, and its lasting legacy is an estate of new houses and a retail park!
Compared to groups like Gwent Theatre, who developed impressively over years of hard work, the approach of the National Theatre is akin to an arts invasion force made up of local boys made good (Michael Sheen), huge rock bands willing to mutilate their own songs for the overall concept (The Manics with 'Design For Life') and the predicatably safe Owen Sheers to devise a script which often sounded laughably absurd.
Gwent Theatre and their ilk, however, represented a commitment to schools and communities over a long period and if Lewis argues that the arts needs 'access for all', then he should be planning a scheme to resurrect theatre in education, only this time on a Wales-wide basis.
The National Theatre may be commendably experimental in form, but it is also extremely conventional in content. It would have been more daring to have used a version of 'The Passion' story which made analogies between Dic Penderyn and Christ, both martyrs of course.
I doubt very much that Lewis knows what's happening in the arts. It's all very well saying that Treorci is more important than the Millennium Centre, but venues like the Parc and Dare rely almost entirely on outside acts to bring the revenue in.
His idea of the arts is to bring opera to a converted chapel, while what is needed is a more community-based and dynamic policy.
Now, not only do we need theatre in education groups throughout Cymru, but residencies at these, whereby dramatists can work with local groups , doing workshops and putting on productions. This happened very successfully in the past, with playwrights like Charles Way and Greg Cullen at Gwent and Powys respectively.
I've concentrated on drama simply because that was Lewis's focus, but in literature much greater access should be encouraged through a series of Young People's Litfests, such as the one organised in Merthyr last year, when many schools took part in a day of workshops and readings.
Lewis's twin interests in opera and Shakespeare merely illustrate his elitist view of the arts.
What will the next National Theatre project be? 'Macbeth' in Merthyr written in Valleys dialect? Well, second thoughts, that might be........
Interestingly, he states - ' But we want organisations to know we are standing by them during this very difficult period.'
So why didn't he intervene to save the likes of Gwent Theatre and the Dylan Thomas Centre?
His claim about 'access for all' is pure spin : it has no substance without
clear policies which will have a lasting affect.
As in the past, Labour's philosophy is one of giving the people what is good for them, not involving people to devise their own creations. This top-down, Stalinist mentality has barely changed since the days of Bethesda Arts Centre in Merthyr, when they refused to support it and turned it into a Job Club.
The arts are happening now despite, rather than because of the Minister's encouragement, yet groups and individuals are feeling the impact of the Cuts and receiving negligible backing. He's full is talk, but has failed to act.
I offer the following poem to show there's more to Valleys' culture than opera in church halls........yes, there's KFC!
EWMAN ADVERT
I woz standin at-a bus stop
right by-a KFC
bastin an bakin in-a smell
of chicken fat an chip oil,
waitin f’r a number 9 t Irwin.
The low mornin sun
woz shinin straight at me,
my jacket starts cracklin,
it wuz ot as an oven,
my arms like two drumsticks.
When-a bus come
I couldn wave it down,
I woz totelee paralyzed!
A sign cross my t-shirt read –
‘Colonel Sanders Needs You’
like an army recrewtment poster.
I tried t speak t passin people
an on’y come out with en noises;
theyer dog saluted is leg
an pisses all over my jeans.
The reek ad got inta my bones,
my nose a parson’s,
my skin nothin but breadcrumbs.
‘Ee looks delicious! I’d love t eat im!’
some kids shout, poking
an proddin t make me cluck.
Then, sudden as it ud appened,
the wind changes direction,
clouds cover up-a sun
an rain dampens down the stinkin air.
A free man agen, I forget Irwin
an wing back up the ill
like some petrified chicken
about t ave its throat slit
an its guts bagged in plastic.
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