Kind Friends!

I want to talk today about love letters.  I am so worried that they will go out of fashion and become obsolete, and I need your help. I am talking about hand-written love letters.  It seems to me that the young and even the not-so-young generation are totally obsessed with screens – the smart phone I believe one is called – and I will never really understand the fashion to sit staring slavishly at a smart phone – when to look around one, observe the world is so much more exciting – and so much safer too, when crossing roads! The joy of receiving or sending a hand-written letter is so splendid and, sadly, I believe, it is being taken over by the ‘tweet’.

I am, as I have mentioned before, an ancient cat – now in my 19th year, and I know the joy I experience to receive a hand written letter – as opposed to an email. I use email, of course, to communicate with my friends – but too often it is a frustrating business.  People now receive so many emails they have spam files, and I often think my epistles are swallowed into this abyss!

Writing Love Letters

Receiving a proper handwritten letter, one always replied – because then one would get another letter and the circle of correspondence would be never-ending.  Perfect!  A hand-written letter you can keep – can mull over, re-read, store away – it becomes  a written history of your friendship or love affair – it can bring comfort and joy well into old age, as we know in our Thespian household where writing is still a daily occupation.

A hand-written love letter is the work of the heart –  it is personal –  it can reveal your inner soul, and captured on the page, complete with blots from tears or the pen, it becomes a unique offering.  The computer, however, is not sensitive to mood – it will play up in the middle of creating a poem or play, it can delete on a whim – but if everything is written on paper by hand – nothing will be lost.

As a Theatre Cat – I see my work is to watch over our performances and creative writing and to draw your attention to anything I think might be of special interest.  If you would like to read a love letter or two, go to our Theatre Memoir What Country Friends is This? – if, on the other hand you have had experience of having ‘loved and lost’ then maybe try Poems of Love and Loss our latest publication.  Both books are available via Amazon, and to follow the deeds and daring of Llandovery Theatre Company, do go to our web page, click on ‘publications’ and read some of the recent reviews for our books.

Thank you for reading my words!  Long live love!

Horatio Nelson

13 October 2017

Dear Friends!

National Poetry Day – 28 September 2017  – The theme is Freedom!

It is so good to read in The Post, of the several groups of writers who are meeting in Llandovery to enjoy and create poetry and prose stories.  So much talent in our town and so many tales to tell, to unlock from personal memory and share with the world.  Writing can be a consolation and a balm – it can release the tension of dark days and sleepless nights, it can bring joy just by the mere achievement of putting a few thoughts on paper, in verse or in prose.
Examining the theme of ‘freedom’ I wonder if we truly have freedom to speak and write in the language of our choice.  Writing of any kind, be it a novel or a poem, requires an audience.  The author believes and hopes the audience will be vast, and will therefore write in the language he is familiar with from birth, and if he becomes famous his work will then be translated for the world.  It is the ‘creating’ language that is the main issue. For us, here in Llandovery Theatre – it is English – and to celebrate National Poetry Day – here is a recent poem, written following a drama workshop with a group of young adults with learning disabilities – and particularly ‘dedicated’ to one un-named young  man in his search for vocal freedom.

The drama class
I search for the route to tunnel through,
to find you, the real you,
I wonder at the pattern of your thoughts,
that neither of us can disentangle,
and how to meet you on a mutual plane.
Sometimes for a moment when your face lights up
I think we have made contact,  then
the light flickers out so soon –
bright for a moment, and dark again –
A flash of lightening only!
When we meet next, we will tread your vast
disordered field
I, searching for a moment when
we can be joined together
by the line of a poem or the words of a song.

Richard 111 and Llandovery 
The Theatre has had several enquiries and requests to read the script of TRIPLE DICK – Simon Barnes’ play on the last days of Richard 111, first performed in the Assembly Rooms Llandovery in 1977, and repeated 1985 in the Theatre.
There is a growing interest in Richard 111 since his bones were discovered in the Leicester Car Park, and there is now some interest in investigating who was actually responsible for the death of the Two Princes.  At the time of Battle of Bosworth, James Tyrell (the reputed murderer of the Princes) was Steward of Llandovery Castle,
and Richard 111 was ‘Lord of the manor of Llandovery’ and gave the town its first Royal Charter  – the second Royal Charter came from The Prince of Wales in 1985, who now has a home a few miles outside our town, a very special Royal link renewed!

Pages from the History of Llandovery – Volume One
When Simon was researching for his play, he and Jacky met with  A.T.Aber-Cooke – the Historian, indeed Mr Aber-Cooke wrote a review of Triple Dick, now alas lost! He was, at that time working on his magnum opus – Pages from the History of Llandovery and he told us Tyrell was Steward of Llandovery Castle. We believe he gives more detailed information in Volume One of his ‘Pages’.  The Theatre has copy of Volume Two but not Volume One.  If anyone has a copy of Volume One,  and would be happy to loan it to us for a short while, we would be very grateful.

Poems of Love and Loss
Returning again the theme of Poetry, it is quite by chance that we are about to publish a small book of poems – Poems of Love and Loss – which should be available by National Poetry Day or very soon after!  Please watch the Llandovery Theatre Web page or our Face Book page for details and in the meantime, thank you for reading my ‘thoughts’ and do keep writing!
Horatio Nelson
Llandovery Theatre.com

Dear Friends,

I have been wondering!    It is not often that life echoes fiction, but it almost did, for us theatre folk, on June 8th!

Blind Choice OR Would you vote for a man who wore make-up?

Some years ago the youth Company at Llandovery Theatre performed one of our plays – Blind Choice or Would you vote for a man who wore make-up?  a political satire on the spin of politics.  An election is looming – and in order to appeal to the younger voter, the Conservative Party set up a TV programme complete with Spin Doctor and young ‘glamorous’ Agent, and present three young candidates – who are ‘grilled’ on their aims and beliefs.   At the end, the viewing audience vote, via their screens, as to which chap they would choose as Conservative candidate for Wandsworth West.

Hung Parliament!

Fate intervenes!  A young, unemployed man, Dan Death, wanders into the TV studio, and is mistakenly picked as one of the contestants.  The ‘count’ is rigged, so no-one organising intervenes to correct this, but when it comes to the voting, Dan wins, not by just a few votes, but by a million!

Fast Forward to the Election, the young maverick, resisting the make-overs and ‘grooming’ –  is still his own man, but at the Election count, the two major parties come in with exactly the same number of votes.  Three re-counts, and then the resolution is by the toss of a coin.

The final screen display at the end of the play states ‘HUNG PARLIAMENT!’

I don’t have a vote, being a mere cat.  And though I am not a sooth-sayer, I sometimes have ideas while sitting on my window-sill.  I suggest – as it is likely there could be another election within, say, the next year, you lose no time but go now to your sitting MP and make sure (whatever the party) that he or she is going to support, up to the hilt, the demands for more funding for the National Health and dementia care, and that university fees be abolished.  Add to these three, your needs for good access to primary and secondary schools, without asking children to travel hundreds of miles a week, this could and should be the responsibility of the County Councils.  So get onto them too!

Questions that need answers!

As I come to the end of my letter, news is flooding the airways of the terrible inferno at Grenfell Tower in London, with such a tragic loss of life, and reports maintaining that the cause of the spread of the fire was because the cladding on the exterior of the building was not fire retardant.  Are there tower blocks in Wales constructed using such cladding?  The answer may well be – YES!    All should be checked and dealt with today, now, without waiting for any Public Enquiry.

Dear Friends,
As the song goes – June is busting out all over…

This month of June, our team at Llandovery Theatre – our Trustees, Actors, Artists, Writers and Friends will be meeting to discuss and mull over plans for the coming year.

History
It was an evening of 1975 – Simon and Jacky Barnes were sitting in the kitchen in their house when there was a bang on the front door.  A very loud bang!  Opening it, they discovered four young men!  Was this a delegation from the Welsh free army, they wondered?!

The four lads entered the small kitchen – ‘Heard you are actors’ one said – ‘we’ve come to ask if you would consider directing us – the Llandovery Young Farmers –  in the All Wales YFC drama competition?’  (So not the Welsh free army!)

The play chosen that night was OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR, the brilliant anti-war script from Joan Littlewood’s Theatre in Stratford East, London – Theatre Workshop – later made into a film, directed by Richard Attenborough.  For the Llandovery Theatre Company it was the start of work with community and youth drama projects that would last over 40 years!

Llandovery Theatre Company
We are here to support and develop your performance dreams.  We work in a building, recently described in a Review on Amazon of What Country Friends is This? as ‘possibly the most beautiful small Theatre and Arts Centre in the kingdom’.  Yes, it is beautiful – it is your Theatre, it is a Theatre for everyone!

Interested?  Like to be involved?

Follow us on the Llandovery Theatre Face Book, or Theatre Web Page, and contact us to let us know your ‘dreams’.

Read all about us!

What Country Friends is this? is the Theatrical Memoir of Simon and Jacky Barnes, and the building of the Llandovery Theatre. It is available via Amazon, in paperback and ebook.

Find out about us!  It is a good read for a summer afternoon!

Horatio Nelson

P.S.  This picture is of me sitting in a deckchair being photographed – somewhat against my will.  I was a very inexperienced young cat in those days, and not yet used to ‘theatricals’.

Kind friends,

The adventures and misadventures of being a writer are numerous.  I know, because my Thespian writes books as well as plays and has just published her first novel, and we were expecting to receive the first shipment from the USA (that is where the book is printed).  We are given the date of arrival, and I am alert on my window sill to advise her when I hear the van arrive.  It was a long wait, a very long wait, and to tell the truth I was exhausted with watching and waiting, and the wait continued for the next four days – nothing arrived.  Where was her ‘child’ she kept asking!  4th day contact with USA revealed that the shipment was untraceable – lost!

LOST IN TRANSIT!
Jacky was not best pleased.  She began to talk of hi-jack and that the Americans didn’t know where Wales was. and had probably sent her novel to Patagonia!  We were now to await another shipment, and I was back on my window sill as ‘look out’ while Jacky paced the house muttering unprintable oaths against all carriers of books. Clearly she was now convinced it was a conspiracy.  Maybe Donald Trump had issued an edict that all newly published books leaving the States should be scrutinised for any un-American dialogue!  A title with the words ‘vigil’ and ‘death’ and ‘innocence’ was probably the trigger for suspicion.  But the book is a ‘peace’ novel, and anti-war – and the title page has an image of an ivy crucifixion – (detail from Simon Barnes’ painting in the Theatre Art Gallery).  By now she was quite paranoid, and I had to give her a good talking to, advising patience.

THE ‘BOOK LADY’!
Seven more days, and the second shipment arrived.  She greeted the carrier with some suspicion, but he was friendly enough, saying she was known to him as ‘the book lady’. Well that’s a new title for her for sure, though as she had never met this carrier before – it did seem strange to both of us!  However, we now have copies of  VIGIL FOR THE DEATH OF INNOCENCE and can confidently announce that it is available in paperback or as an ebook via Amazon, or via Jacky if you can get her to part with any of them.

VIGIL FOR THE DEATH OF INNOCENCE

Jaqueline Harrison Barnes 

HE was a soldier, had fought in wars, had killed, yet he had the gift of healing.
HE was a doctor, trained to heal, to save life yet failed in the one great test.

TWO MEN from different worlds, one black, one white, collide in a car crash.
At that precise moment, as their two lives are irrevocably intertwined,
the security cameras in the Tower of London, watching the Royal Regalia, show
an image of a circlet of thorns beside the Royal Crown – and start to send out to
the world, messages of love and pleas for peace that cannot be stopped.

A political adventure! A weak and bankrupt Government intent on unleashing the ‘dogs of war’ versus a small group of ‘innocents’ who cross their path with a miracle. 

Horatio Nelson says: please go to the Llandovery Theatre Facebook Page or Llandovery Theatre web page for all information on new writing and publications.

Dear Friends and Theatre Lovers,

Are you now, or have you ever been in a Llandovery Theatre Company youth, community or professional performance or drama workshop under the direction of Simon and Jacky Barnes – 1975 to 2006?

Were you one of the Llandovery Young Farmers who toured with us to Aberystwyth, through snow and blizzards to reach the Theatre for a performance of Dick Whittington just 3 minutes before curtain up?  Did you also act in Under Milk Wood and Oh What a Lovely War? Were you in the Roald Dahl Literacy and drama workshops in 1997/78? Did you perform in David Copperfield, The Old Curiosity Shop, Jane Eyre, Ring of Roses, The Pied Piper – at the Llandovery Theatre and Festivals?

Did you attend evening drama workshops with Simon and Jacky, and perform in numerous pantomimes, starting with a musical play Long Live Love? Did you perform in Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew?

Did you help us decorate the Art Gallery naming it The Anne Marie Griffiths Gallery? And most importantly, were you one of the workers who helped us build the theatre 1975 – 1996?

If you were any one of these amazing people, then you are most cordially invited to join us on Saturday September 17th, to help us launch the Theatre Memoir …

WHAT COUNTRY FRIENDS IS THIS? for you will almost certainly find you are included in this most remarkable Theatrical Journey.

I, Horatio Nelson, am myself part of WHAT COUNTRY FRIENDS IS THIS? and also responsible for writing the foreword to the book, so I am able to fully recommend this intriguing and fascinating tale – it is both a love story and a theatrical adventure.

Sincerely – Horatio Nelson

Dear Friends and Theatre Lovers,

Our chief Thespian is away at present, gallivanting no doubt; so I am writing this entirely on my own. without her looking over my shoulder and trying to manoeuvre the mouse!

We have some splendid plans ahead.  We will be giving readings from Simon’s book: Darkly Flows the Taff – and plan to record it.  The reader is James Parry Jones – ex Llandovery College scholar and he played Mercutio in our 1981 Youth Production of Romeo and Juliet, which  also performed at the Sherman Theatre Cardiff.

Then in September we will publish –What Country Friends is this? It is the Theatre memoir of Simon and Jacky Barnes, who founded and ran Llandovery Theatre together for 35 years.

Evening of November 12th.  We are producing a programme of poetry, song and performance – Memories of War – timing it as a tribute to those who took part or experienced World War 1 and World War 2.

Do put this date in your diary!

And please remember that every last Friday in the month, the Heart Support Group meets at the Theatre, 2 – 4 p.m. in the coffee lounge,  As the song says: Anyone who has a heart – is welcome to join us.

I wish all a sunny summer, and may only lucky black cats cross your path!

Horatio Nelson, Theatre Cat.