Dylan Thomas Centre Programme September – December 2010 The Dylan Thomas Centre’s autumn programme showcases established names alongside exciting new voices, where writers of the calibre of Gillian Clarke, Carol Ann Duffy and Don Paterson rub shoulders with the likes of Tyler Keevil, Will Gritten and Richard Jones. We present debut Dylan Thomas Centre readings by Siobhan Campbell, Carrie Etter, Ian Gregson, and Rhys Trimble, and round off the year, appropriately, with a magical celebration of Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales. We warmly invite you to join us for this series of events that will entertain, inform and inspire. Jo Furber, Literature Officer Saturday, 4 September, 1pm
Lunchtime Theatre: Something Unspoken by Tennessee Williams Fluellen Theatre Company present Tennessee Williams’s Something Unspoken. Cornelia Scott wishes to realise her Tennessee lifetime ambition: to be named president of The Daughters of the Williams Confederation. But in the tense hours before the announcement something threatens – something unspoken. Tennessee Williams is the great poet of twentieth century American theatre, and the script-in-hand performance of this intriguing play will be preceded by a talk about his life and work. Tickets: £5 Gillian Clarke
Wednesday, 15 September, 7.30pm
On the Edge: Talking to Wordsworth by Gillian Clarke Gillian Clarke is the much acclaimed National Poet of Wales, and we’re delighted to be staging a rehearsed reading of Talking to Wordsworth, which will be introduced by Gillian herself. It will be preceded by a revival of Highjinx Theatre’s Wishful Thinking. Tickets: £4 Friday, 17 September, 7pm
Bright Young Things Rising literary stars Tyler Keevil, Will Gritten and Susie Wild read from their debut Susie Wild Will Gritten Tyler Keevil collections from Parthian Books, and discuss their work with Parthian fiction editor, Lucy Llewellyn. www.brightyoungthings.info Tickets: Free entry and wine, in association with Parthian Books
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September - December 2010
Thursday, 23 September, 7pm
John Tripp: The Meaning of Apricot Sponge A selection of the writings of John Tripp (1927-1986) - poet, short story writer, and journalist - an outspoken and often controversial writer whose passion and vigour often spilled over the pages he wrote and into his life. This new title includes an essay by Peter Finch, and is edited by Tony Curtis, Professor of Poetry at the University of Glamorgan, who also provides a critical foreword. Tony Curtis, John Tripp Award Winner Mab Jones, and Swansea writer and Tripp scholar, Nigel Jenkins, will give readings from the book. Tickets: Free entry and wine, in association with Parthian Books Saturday, 25 September, 7.30pm
Don Paterson One of Britain’s finest poets reads from his work. Don Paterson’s poetry has won an impressive number of awards, including the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Whitbread Poetry Prize, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Award, and the T.S. Eliot Prize on two occasions. Don Most recently, Rain won the 2009 Forward Prize. He is a Paterson Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and received an OBE in 2008 and the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2010. Paterson teaches poetry at the University of St Andrews, and since 1996 has been poetry editor at Picador MacMillan. Tickets: Full Price: £6.50 Concessions: £4.50 PTL: £2.60 Sunday, 26 September, 11am – 1pm
Poetry Workshop with Don Paterson Don Paterson will conduct an open seminar-style workshop and discuss all aspects of the poetic art, looking at the business of poetic composition as a technical, practical and spiritual exercise, and focussing on every stage of the process from inspiration to publication. Please bring pen, paper and two or three good questions. Tickets: £15. Please contact the Centre on 01792 463980 to book your place. Wednesday, 29 September, 7.30pm
Science Café The Swansea Science Café offers opportunities for anyone to find out more about new, exciting and topical areas of science. Designed to be informal and entertaining, the café typically runs on the last Wednesday of every month. For more information, see www.sciencecafewales.org Tickets: Free entry
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Thursday, 30 September, 7.30pm
Poets in the Bookshop with Siobhan Campbell Siobhan Campbell’s third full collection, Cross-Talk (Seren, 2009), was declared a “cunning sideways take on the pastoral” by the Irish Times. Siobhan is a Principal Lecturer at Kingston University London. Her work has appeared in journals including Poetry, Agenda and Poetry Ireland, and she has won awards in the National Poetry Competition as well as in Siobhan the Troubadour and Wigtown competitions. She is Campbell anthologised in The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing and Identity Parade, New British and Irish Poets (Bloodaxe). The evening will also include an open mic session, in which audience members may read a poem in English or in Welsh. Tickets: Full Price: £4 Concessions: £2.80 PTL: £1.60 Sunday, 3 October, 10am – 4pm
Discovering Shakespeare Workshop #1: Macbeth A chance to discover in some depth three great plays by William Shakespeare - a tragedy, a history and a comedy Peter beginning with Macbeth. Peter Richards (Artistic Director of Richards Fluellen Theatre Company) and other actors will explore one text per session for a greater historical and theatrical understanding of the plays, demonstrating how the texts are taken from the page and translated into living pieces of theatre. Tickets: £10 per day. Plays may be booked separately. Please contact Fluellen on 01792 368269 to reserve your place. Thursday, 7 October, 7.30pm
National Poetry Day event: Paul Henry and Richard Jones Paul Henry is one of Wales’s leading poets, and tonight launches The Brittle Sea: New and Selected Poems (Seren). The author of five collections, he has read at festivals across the UK and Europe. Originally a songwriter, Henry has guest-edited Poetry Wales and is a popular creative writing tutor. He recently presented the ‘Inspired’ series of arts programmes for BBC Radio Wales. Reading with him is Swansea poet and teacher Richard Jones, who is working with Paul under the Academi’s mentoring scheme for talented young writers.
Paul Henry
Tickets: Free Entry and wine, in association with Seren Books.
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September - December 2010
Saturday, 9 October, 1pm
Lunchtime Theatre: The Lesson by Eugene Ionesco Fluellen Theatre Company present Eugene Ionesco’s The Lesson. Ionesco`s wonderful absurdist comedy tells of a professor who gives private lessons to a pupil who seems to be remarkably gifted. But all is not as it first appears in a play that has been described as “a coiled spring of contracted violence.” Eugene Ionesco was one of the foremost theatrical voices of twentieth century European theatre and the script-in-hand performance of this classic satire will be preceded by a talk about his life and work. Tickets: £5 Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 October
Women’s Archive of Wales, 13th Annual Conference The conference provides an unique opportunity for networking among historians of women and those interested in preserving the documentary evidence of women’s lives in Wales across the centuries. Members of the public are very welcome to attend some or all of the conference, which includes a celebratory dinner with music from Jazz Heritage Wales’ Jen Wilson. Tickets: Please see www.womensarchivewales.org for details, and to book your place. Wednesday, 20 October, 7.30pm
Science Café For more information, see www.sciencecafewales.org Tickets: Free entry Thursday, 21 October, 7.30pm
Poets in the Bookshop with Ian Gregson Ian Gregson
Ian Gregson’s latest book of poems is How We Met (Salt, 2008). Call Centre Love Song, a selection of his poems, was shortlisted for the prestigious Forward Prize. He has published poems and reviews in the London Review of Books, the TLS and Poetry Review, amongst others. His critical books include The New Poetry In Wales (University of Wales Press, 2007). Since 1977, he has taught in the English department at Bangor University, where he is now Professor. The evening will also include an open mic session, in which audience members may read a poem in English or in Welsh. Tickets: Full Price: £4 Concessions: £2.80 PTL: £1.60
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27 October – 9 November
Dylan Thomas Festival - “A Home from Home for the Thomases” This year’s festival – programmed by David Woolley with Jeff Towns - takes as its theme the considerable number of Thomases who have made a significant contribution to the literature of Wales and beyond. As well as Dylan himself, there will be events focusing on R.S., Edward, Wynford Vaughan, Gwyn and John Ormond Thomas. Participants include contemporary writers of the stature of Andrew Motion, Gwyneth Lewis, Alexis Lykiard, Mike Jenkins, and the superb Canadian poetry and music troupe, The Fugitives. We host the first full Swansea performance of a new one man show on David Lloyd George, and Peter Hain discusses his new book on Nelson Mandela. This year’s festival exhibition includes a display on the Thomases, and the first showing of some doodles by Dylan and artist and illustrator, Dodie Masterman. A separate brochure will be available in September. Sunday, 14 November, 10am – 4pm
Discovering Shakespeare Workshop #2: Henry V A chance to discover in some depth three great plays by William Shakespeare - a tragedy, a history and a comedy - this month looking at Henry V. Peter Richards (Artistic Director of Fluellen Theatre Company) and other actors will explore one text per session for a greater historical and theatrical understanding of the plays, demonstrating how the texts are taken from the page and translated into living pieces of theatre. Tickets: £10 per day. Plays may be booked separately. Please contact Fluellen on 01792 368269 to reserve your place. Wednesday, 17 November, 7.30pm
Booklaunch: Jon Gower - Uncharted Join two gifted conversationalists who share a passion for books as they trade words for an hour. Swansea historian and ace raconteur Peter Stead chats with Jon Gower about his latest novel Uncharted, a book described by Jan Morris as “unflaggingly and unfailingly inventive.” Tickets: Free entry and wine, in association with Gomer. Saturday, 20 November, 1pm
Vaclav Havel
Lunchtime Theatre: Protest by Vaclav Havel Fluellen Theatre Company present Vaclav Havel’s Protest. Havel’s alter ego, Vanek, visits the home of an old friend in order to get him to sign a petition to fight the oppressive regime under which they both live. But nothing goes according to plan. This powerful play about the responsibility of the artist to fight social ills is the final part of Havel`s great trilogy of Vanek plays, the previous two (Audience and The Unveiling) having proved so popular when previously performed at the Dylan Thomas Centre. This script-in-hand performance will be preceded by a talk about Vaclav Havel`s life and work. Tickets: £5
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September - December 2010
Wednesday, 24 November, 7.30pm
Science Café For more information, see www.sciencecafewales.org Tickets: Free entry Thursday, 25 November, 7.30pm
Poets in the Bookshop with Carrie Etter American expatriate Carrie Etter’s first collection, The Tethers (Seren, 2009), was hailed in the Times Literary Supplement as “one of the most ambitious and accomplished first collections of recent years.” She has also edited an anthology, Infinite Difference: Other Poetries by UK Women Poets (Shearsman, 2010), and her pamphlet, Carrie Etter The Son (Oystercatcher, 2009), was a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice. She is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and has been blogging for five years at www.carrieetter.blogspot.com The evening will also include an open mic session, in which audience members may read a poem in English or in Welsh. Tickets: Full Price: £4 Concessions: £2.80 PTL: £1.60 Thursday, 2 December, 7.30pm
Medical Foundation Fundraiser Annual fundraising event for the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. The evening will include music and poetry, and further details can be obtained from jack.fell@yahoo.co.uk Tickets: Full Price: £7 Concessions: £5 Sunday, 5 December, 10am – 4pm
Discovering Shakespeare Workshop #3 Twelfth Night A chance to discover in some depth three great plays by William Shakespeare - a tragedy, a history and a comedy - this month looking at Twelfth Night. Peter Richards (Artistic Director of Fluellen Theatre Company) and other actors will explore one text per session for a greater historical and theatrical understanding of the plays, demonstrating how the texts are taken from the page and translated into living pieces of theatre. Tickets: £10 per day. Plays may be booked separately. Please contact Fluellen on 01792 368269 to reserve your place. Wednesday, 8 December, 7.30pm
On the Edge: Night Horse by Catrin Clarke Tensions grow as a mother and daughter wait for a soldier to come back from Afghanistan. Join us for a rehearsed reading of Night Horse, which was first broadcast on Radio 4 in 2009 to great acclaim. Tickets: £4
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Friday, 10 December, 7.30pm
Gillian Clarke
Carol Ann Duffy and Gillian Clarke: National Poet of Wales On Tour In association with
Carol
Ann Duffy The National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke and Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy read and discuss their work. These two poets have been awarded the highest recognition: to be called on to reflect and interpret the emotions of a nation. Gillian Clarke became National Poet of Wales in 2008. After two successful years in the post, this is your chance to hear new work by the National Poet, as well as a selection from her vast back catalogue. Since becoming Poet Laureate in 2009, Carol Ann Duffy has written on subjects as disparate as the parliamentary expenses scandal, the volcanic ash cloud, and David Beckham’s injured heel. We’re delighted to welcome her back to the Dylan Thomas Centre. This event is part of the National Poet’s Tour of Wales throughout the autumn, organised by Academi. For other tour dates, please visit www.academi.org or email post@academi.org or call 029 2047 2266. The National Poet of Wales project is sponsored by the Arts Council of Wales and administrated by Academi. Tickets: Full Price: £10 Concessions: £7, which includes £1 off any new book purchased on the night.
Tuesday, 14 December, 7pm
Christmas in Wales Fluellen Theatre Company’s magical celebration, in words and music, of Christmases past and present, featuring a complete performance of their celebrated adaptation of Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas In Wales, with Delyth Jenkins on harp. Tickets: Full Price: £6.00 Concessions: £4.00, which includes a glass of mulled wine or juice in the interval. Wednesday 15 December, 7.30pm
Poets in the Bookshop with Rhys Trimble Rhys Trimble is a bilingual poet, performer and editor alive in North Wales. He was born in 1977 in Livingstone, Zambia and brought up in Gwent and Pontneddfechan. He is published in Poetry Wales, Tears in the Fence, Seventh Quarry, Coffee House Poetry, Aesthetica, Skald and various other magazines and radio. Rhys Trimble Recent works include ‘Dancing’, with Zoë Skoulding and Alan Holmes, for the band, Parking Non-Stop. The evening includes an open mic session, in which audience members may read a poem in English or in Welsh. Tickets: Full Price: £4 Concessions: £2.80 PTL: £1.60
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September - December 2010
Corridor Gallery
Exhibitions
10 August – 5 September
‘Drawings’ - Alan Bicknell Alan Bicknell writes of this exhibition: “things on stilts, bunkbeds, moths, those props and struts that are used to hold up wayward buildings, Morvern Callar’s use of words like ‘goldish’ and ‘rampant’, lamps - always lamps, people with pipes in their faces, that wall in Penarth where someone’s written ‘Wolfey 97’, or might be 93, can’t remember, the huge pram me and mum pushed to the jumble sale, the clothes I wore later that day, makeshift barns, archways and ceilings a little too tall for me to reach…” 7 September – 3 October
Lucy Bevan ‘You went to Belarus, so I went to Paris’ “A trip was made to cheer myself up as my boyfriend had to go home to Belarus for 2 months. Each day a new story unfolded and these pictures are the consequences. The exhibition is a selection of Polaroid SX-70 and image spectra photographs made in and around Paris.” 5 October – 24 October
‘Taking the LeAP - Moving on to Comp’ Taking the LeAP - Moving on to Comp’ is a highly successful multimedia project designed to address the concerns of Year 6 children in their last term of primary school. Designed with children from Years 5 - 8, this exhibition illustrates and celebrates the achievements of those children whom have already taken part in the project. 26 October – 21 November
Dylan Thomas Festival Exhibition This year’s festival exhibition in the Corridor Gallery and the back room of the ‘Man and Myth’ exhibiton includes a display on the many Thomases who have made a contribution to Welsh literature, and the first showing of some doodles by Dylan and artist and illustrator, Dodie Masterman.
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Become a Friend of the Dylan Thomas Centre As a Friend, you’ll receive the following benefits, which last for a year: • Concessionary ticket rate on all Literature Programme events • 10% off new books in our bookshop • Invites to launches and private viewings • Priority mailing and email reminders • Entry into our Friends Prize Draw. Please contact us on 01792 463980 or email dylanthomas.lit@swansea.gov.uk for further details.
The Dylan Thomas Centre Somerset Place, Swansea SA1 1RR dylanthomas.lit@swansea.gov.uk www.dylan-thomas-books.com
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Supported by: hybu llên literature promotion
Photo Credits: Paul Henry by Owen Sheers; Carol Ann Duffy © Academi and John Briggs; Jon Gower © Emyr Jenkins; Don Paterson © Murdo McLeod
CYNGOR LLYFRAU CYMRU WELSH BOOKS COUNCIL
Whilst all effort is made to ensure that the details of this programme are accurate, the City and County of Swansea reserve the right to alter any part of the programme without notice.
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September - December 2010