Members of the cast & crew of Land of Our Fathers share their experiences on tour in Wales & England 2015/16.
Friday 20th November 2015
Cornelius Booth Chopper
The best thing about touring a show, rather than staying at one venue, is that it never gets dull. When you're performing a play at the same theatre, week in, week out, for months on end, it's hard to keep everything fresh, and your concentration can slip. But when you're in a new venue every few days you constantly have new challenges to keep you on your toes - the accoustics, the sight-lines of the audience, how to make your way from the dressing-room to the stage without getting lost...
Actually, the first thing we do at a new venue is to find the showers. It's a very dirty show - I mean, REALLY filthy. And the charcoal-dust makeup and baby-oil we use to give ourselves the look of a week's worth of coaldust, grime and sweat is not the easiest thing to remove after a performance. Some venues are very well equipped in this regard - hats off to the Centre which had first class showers - and communal, too, allowing us to form a conga line and scrub each other's backs clean with exfoliating gloves. (Yes, there is a video of this. No, you can't see it). At any rate, we've managed to leave each venue more or less clean and tidy. By which I mean we've been clean and tidy. At this point I really must apologise to whoever has to clean the dressing-room once we leave - even with copious amounts of plastic sheeting on floors and surfaces our grime still manages to get everwhere.
Another bonus of touring is it gives you a chance to visit new places - I'd been to Cardiff before (playing The New Theatre with the RSC and, more recently, Peter Pan Goes Wrong) and Aberystwyth (with The Globe) but it was my first time to Swansea, Carmarthen, Llandudno and Caernarfon. My one regret is that the weather has not been particularly favourable for sightseeing.
Driving through Snowdonia between venues was, however, spectacular - made all the more so by the dramatic mists and storms. And on that subject of driving - full disclosure - I'm not Welsh! (Which, hopefully, comes as a surprise to those of you who have seen the show). Well, okay, I'm half-welsh on my mother's side (she's a valley girl from Abercynon) but all the same, I fear I still manage to mangle some of the place-names while navigating for fellow cast-member Robert as we drive between venues. Fortunately, I'm spared embarrassment as he, a Canadian with Polish ancestry, is by and large no better informed on the correct pronunciation than I am.
Next stop, Mold! Five days (24th to 28th November) at Theatr Clwyd, which should be a wonderful end to the Welsh leg of the tour. We'll also be making an early start on the festive season with Secret Santa gift-giving amongst the cast and crew. Unlike the characters in the show we all get on pretty well (so important when you're on the road for any length of time). As Hovis says in the play "Rhoi nerth i mi i allu byw gyda morons yma." Translation "I'm so lucky to be with this lovely group of people."
Iechyd da!
For more information on Land of Our Fathers and for tour dates, please click here.
Monday 2nd November 2015
Helen Coyston Associate Designer
Land of Our Fathers is a play that looks deceptively simple to the eye - it is in fact a massive show with an intricate and beautiful design to match.

Monday 19th October 2015
Robert Jezek Hovis
We had a most extraordinary trip to a Welsh coal mine (now a museum) 'Big Pit', not far from Cardiff, on Tuesday of last week. It was informative, inspiring and grounding all at the same time!! We arrived early and were helped into our belts/batteries and helmet/headlamps by the staff, all ex-miners and right from the word get-go, the banter started! It is one thing to feel that a script captures the camaraderie, humour and depth of these men's relationships, but it was riveting to see it personified . Our guide, John, was quite a character, oscillating between humour and information at the drop of a hat while taking us down, down, down in the cage approximately 300 feet below ground. To feel the solid walls around us, then to turn off our lamps and experience the utter blackness of the mine was so helpful in bringing some of the script to reality. Wood beams lined the tunnels and when one was spotted with a crack along it's lower edge, John informed us 'That will need replacing'...museum or not the mine is still 'alive' and as we learned, rock movement is not only from above, as in a collapse, but also the pressures from below cause upheaval. One of the reasons that the job of driving the coal 'trains' below ground was considered so dangerous.
For more information on Land of Our Fathers and for tour dates, please click here.
Monday 12th October 2015
Tomos Eames Curly
Well, week 3 has been and gone. It seems like only yesterday we began rehearsals. The lines have all (nearly all) gone in and the characters are almost fully formed. The progression for each of us actors has been rather immense. Within a few weeks everyone seems totally at home in the skin of their miner. This is thanks to a lot of hard work from the production team, long days and some spectacular writing...
The play in itself is wonderful. The amazing thing is that Chris manages to write such tasty characters. Each of whom have such wonderful depth, which for an actor is delicious to play. However, with the depth of understanding of these gorgeous characters comes some serious emotion, which the play is soaked in. Because each of these men are so utterly pushed to their limits week three for me has been testing the boundaries emotionally for Curly. Which has been fascinating and rather exhausting.
Roll on Cardiff!! My home town. For more discoveries. Looking forward especially to visiting Big Pit for research before getting into the space and bringing the pit to life!
Wednesday 30th September 2015
Bobby Brook Associate Director
