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CAITLIN
by Light, Ladd & Emberton
August dates at Chapter in Cardiff and Dance Base at the Edinburgh Fringe, plus available to tour during spring 2016
Caitlin was the wife of poet Dylan Thomas. In 1973 Caitlin started attending Alcoholics Anonymous. The audience sits with Caitlin in the circle of chairs as she revisits her tempestuous life with Dylan, and the unoccupied chairs becoming part of the action in this physical and powerful duet.
Winner of Best Dance Production, Wales Theatre Awards 2015
Chapter, Cardiff: Monday 3, Wednesday 5 & Thursday 6 August, 6pm and 8pm BOOK TICKETS
Edinburgh Fringe Festival: Friday 21 till Sunday 30 August (not Mon 24), Dance Base, 8pm BOOK TICKETS
NB: only 20 tickets available per show
Find and follow us on Twitter for news and reviews. Also on Facebook at Light Ladd & Emberton's page.
AVAILABLE TO TOUR IN SPRING 2016: please see the box below for details.
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Gwyn Emberton is back in Edinburgh after his four star performance in last year’s Wonders of The Universe (The Guardian ****). This time he's teamed up with Eddie Ladd, Wales' leading independent dancer, in this winner of the Best Dance Production in Wales Theatre Awards 2015, directed by Deborah Light.
Dylan Thomas and wife Caitlin explore their inner anti-hero in this intimate dance production.
CAITLIN by Light, Ladd & Emberton
Winner of Best Dance Production in Wales Theatre Awards 2015
The year is 1973. Within a circle of chairs, 60-year-old Caitlin Thomas is confronting head on her drink-addled and destructive marriage to the poet Dylan.
Twenty audience members sit open-mouthed in this uncomfortable but compulsive AA meeting as tumultuous scenes from a 16 year relationship fuelled by love, addiction, jealousy and infidelity begin to flood out of her.
“Hello my name is Caitlin and I’m an alcoholic,” she introduces herself.
A woman of few words – her husband had all the words – she nevertheless continues: “My husband was a very famous poet. I was going to be a very famous dancer. We were supposed to be equal but it wasn’t like that.”
As Caitlin and Dylan drink, fight, love and leave each other, the unoccupied chairs come into their own as the significant objects of their lives: a baby’s crib, a highchair, a straightjacket and Dylan’s deathbed. The duelling duo find themselves on all fours, flat on their backs, buried under a tottering pile of folding chairs and manuscripts and perhaps most disturbingly, him staggering around with her wrapped about his head.
The dischordant soundtrack (empty, eerie, tolling bells, lots of screeching feedback) is written by experimental Welsh musician Thighpaulsandra and live manipulated by Siôn Orgon.
Caitlin and Dylan are a prototype Sid and Nancy – or Kurt and Courtney. Two creative people bound together by love and addiction, living out their chaotic private lives for all to see. Both switch seamlessly between self-obsessive introversion and manic exhibitionism.
Writing in her 1982 autobiography, Caitlin recounts: “Ours was not a love story proper. It was more of a drink story.
"In those long-ago…absolutely unpardonable days, our primary aim was to get ourselves noticed at any cost… So we used shock tactics. We knew only too well that is much easier and quicker to get oneself noticed in a bad light."
CAITLIN was commissioned by the National Library of Wales as part of 2014’s centenary celebration of Dylan Thomas’ birth. With thanks to and supported by Arts Council of Wales, Wales In Edinburgh, Coreo Cymru, Chapter, and Welsh Dance Strand.
Director: Deborah Light
Devised with and performed by Eddie Ladd and Gwyn Emberton
Sound: Siôn Orgon
Soundscore: Thighpaulsandra
Costumes: Neil Davies
Images: Warren Orchard
Producer: Laura H Drane Associates
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About Light, Ladd & Emberton and their collaborators
First-language Welsh speaker Eddie Ladd is Caitlin. Needing no introduction in her homeland, or in the dance sector, Eddie’s CV includes TV presenter for S4C (for which she won a Royal Television Society Award) and spells with Moving Being, Hijinx,Taliesin, Theatrig and Brith Gof. Her Club Luz clubnight won a Total Theatre Award at the 2003 Edinburgh Fringe. She was awarded a NESTA fellowship in 2002 and a Creative Wales Award by Arts Council of Wales in 2010.
Dylan is played by Gwyn Emberton, back in Edinburgh after after his four star performance in last year’s Wonders of The Universe (The Guardian ****). He is an associate artist of both Aberystwyth Arts Centre and Coreo Cymru, creative producer for dance in Wales based at Chapter.
Deborah Light is an independent choreographer and dance artist based in Cardiff. Her work spans stage, installation and site based performance as well as image led projects and has been presented and commissioned internationally since graduating from Laban. Deborah received a Creative Wales Award (2009), was shortlisted as a Place Prize semi finalist (2010) and is an associate artist at Chapter.
Sion Orgon is an experimental musician, composer, singer, songwriter, studio engineer and avant garde artist from Cardiff. He has written and produced three solo studio works and been invited to record a session for BBC Radio 3.
Thighpaulsandra (Tim Lewis) is a Welsh experimental musician and multi-instrumentalist known mostly for performing on synthesizers and keyboards. As Tim Lewis, he began his career working with Julian Cope.
The artists at Edinburgh Fringe 2015
Eddie Ladd and Gwyn Emberton can also be seen at Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2015 in Dawns Ysbrydion/ Ghost Dance for Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru (Ladd) and My People (Emberton). Both shows are at Zoo.
Listings
Edinburgh Previews at Chapter, Cardiff:
CAITLIN, Mon 3, Wed 5 & Thu 6 August 2015, 6pm and 8pm, Chapter Arts, Market Road, Cardiff CF5 1QE Tel: 029 2030 4400 www.chapter.org £12.50/£10.50
Edinburgh Festival Fringe:
CAITLIN, Fri 21-Sun 30 August 2015 (not Mon), 8pm, Dance Base, 14-16 Grassmarket, Edinburgh, EH1 2JU Tel: 0131 225 5525 www.dancebase.co.uk £10/£8
Light, Ladd & Emberton
Supported by Arts Council of Wales as part of Wales In Edinburgh; also Coreo Cymru and Chapter as part of Welsh Dance Strand.
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AVAILABLE TO TOUR IN SPRING 2016
We are booking dates from late March until mid May 2016 for Wales, UK and internationally.
- Space: 7m x 16m (min) - works well in village/ school/ church halls, etc as well as arts spaces
- Company on the road: four people
- Tech: uses only house/working light and brings own sound equipment and set
- Can be performed twice per day; can also offer supporting dialogue/ workshop events
For more info please see here, and contact Laura Drane +44 (0)7957 622623 or l.drane@lauraHdrane.com or lightladdemberton@gmail.com
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With thanks to all who have supported the show through commission, production and touring. CAITLIN was conceived by Eddie Ladd and commissioned by the National Library of Wales as part of 2014 #DT100 centenary celebrations of Dylan Thomas’ birth.
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