Wales Arts Review Volume 2 Issue 13
Wales Arts Review 2.13 sees the continuation of our Welsh short fiction commissions (in partnership with The Rhys Davies Trust), with a new short story from Lloyd Jones, ‘The Elephant in the Room – A Case Study’; a highly original, high-energy look at phobias and obsessions.
As the much-anticipated new movie version of Fitzgerald’s classic story of Jazz Age excess, The Great Gatsby, hits the cinemas, Cerith Mathias talks to novelist Erika Robuck and Fitzgerald Museum Curator Willie Thompson about Fitzgerald’s greatest influence in her essay ‘Gatsby’s Gal – The Reinvention of Zelda Fitzgerald’.
In theatre, Julie Bainbridge reviews the new play from Tim Price, directed by Kate Wasserberg, Salt Root and Roe at Sherman Cymru in Cardiff. Gary Raymond was at Newport’s Riverfront Theatre to see Ballet Cymru’s new production of Prokofiev’s Romeo a Juliet.
Joao Morais takes a look at the new exhibition of portraits from Wales’ ‘most high-profile artist’, Shani Rhys James. In our latest international exploration, artist Sarah Edmonds shares her Sketchbook of Sweden, composed during her latest train trip around the country.
In music, Craig Austin reviews the album from the exciting new band Savages, taking a look at their debut album as well as a recent enigmatic performance in London in his article ‘The Nobility of Savages’. Steph Power has been at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival where she interviewed festival director John Metcalf about the trials and delights of creating challenging programmes for a modern audience; and she was there to also cover the festival itself in her overview of four concerts. And in a highly personal and reflective piece, John Idris Jones remembers the influence of Bruckner on his childhood, and the family trips across the border to recitals on Merseyside in ‘Tunnel to Bruckner’.
In books, Adam Somerset remembers the late Paul Fussell, who sadly passed away in the summer of last year, with a look at his book Wartime. Jon Gower, in his epic trawl through the Library of Wales series, published by Parthian Books, reaches Bernice Rubens’, I Sent a Letter To My Love. Cath Barton reviews Deborah Moggach’s follow up to her phenomenally successful novel The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Heartbreak Hotel.
James Vilares was at the recent family festival established by Sherman Cymru with Theatr Iolo and Theatre Hullabaloo, and experiences a fresh and well-judged intellectual feast for all ages.
We have two extremely interesting interviews from Carl Griffin this issue with two very different poets. He talks to Paul Henry and Kathryn Maris in our poetry section.
Dylan Moore reflects on the place of a writer in society, and revisits one of his earliest published essays on the subject ‘Becoming Welsh in ‘99’, with his new longform piece ‘Cymru en mi Corazon’.
Banner Illustration by Dean Lewis
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