The Making of a Monster Mashup Masterpiece

Connor Allen’s autobiographical grime-theatre mash-up blew us away and impressed a teenager who is pretty hard to please at the moment.

“I like it when it’s real. It felt really true. It’s how school actually is.” – 14-year-old

The universe aligned with unexpected shifts in our usual Thursday evening schedule to free my older boy and me to head to Wales Millennium Centre to see The Making of a Monster.

The iconic Wales Millennium Centre

Performed and created by the Children’s Poet Laureate Wales Connor Allen with David Bonnick Jr and Oraine Johnson, this Wales Millennium Centre production explores Connor’s experience growing up mixed race, and mixed up in trouble in Newport through grime, rap and a bit of audience interaction.

My son nearly cringed up his own sphincter when he thought he’d be called on to talk but these moments of direct communication and play with the audience were handled really well. It set the tone for the piece as a conversation. It’s a story from the 00s but it’s about now too, about race, about a man becoming a boy, and I’ll let you find out for yourself what Roget’s Thesaurus has to do with all that.

Big fan of the striking marketing for The Making of a Monster (Parental Warning sticker just out of shot!)

We agreed that the set was great. A giant half pipe with a towering circular screen dominated the stage, the live drummer and incredible projections keeping us glued to the visuals throughout. I always wonder how tourable a set is and this screamed NOT AT ALL but it’s such an integral part of this show. It spoke of place, youth, energy and with skilled lighting and projection playing a key role, took us all over Newport and into Connor’s mind.

“I really liked that scene with his Dad. Looked like a 3D TV screen.” – 14-year-old

A major theme of the show is absent fathers. This prompted my son afterwards to talk about his very present Dad who grew up without a father-son relationship. Watching a show with Connor’s honesty laying bare his confusion, anger and hurt as a teenage boy made my own teenage boy think about his Dad’s school days in a different way. He’s at that age where my husband’s teaching him to shave, helping him train at the gym, all of that, and The Making of a Monster gut punched him, knowing his Dad grew up in the same town as a father who lived with his other kids and didn’t engage with him at all, but with a Mum who gave him everything.

If you’ve got a teen, or you just remember being a teen, you know these kind of conversations (or any kind of chat beyond a grunt) are rare and precious. That a live performance can make young people reflect on their own lives, experiences and identities is powerful and this show does just that.

Wales Millennium Centre’s foyer last night

With open captions and creative captions integrated into the design, it was another excellent example of the Centre considering accessibility in their Weston Studio productions.

If your teen is studying Drama, they need to get out and see all sorts of work. If your teen isn’t into Drama or Theatre, this show is packed with characters, issues, themes and music that makes all that not matter, it’s like a gig about identity, it’s full of power and truth and part of that is a lot of F bombs.

The Making of a Monster comes with a Parental Advisory of Explicit Content, there’s swearing, rap battling lyrics with sexual references, references to domestic violence and racism. But as a mum, I’d rather my older kids engage with this work to better understand the world and the people in it, to have difficult conversations, than live in a frothy bubble.

Go and see it. It’s at Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff until 19th November so no excuses. I paid just £15 for my ticket and under 26s are only £10. Get there early for pre-show performances from emerging South Wales music talent from 6.30pm and to try out the free augmented reality experience The Museum of Nothingness. Check the Centre’s website for opening dates and times but there’s no need to book for the AR.

Book your tickets here: https://www.wmc.org.uk/en/whats-on/2022/the-making-of-a-monster

(Not invited to review, I bought our tickets and wrote this up because I think more people should see it.)

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Book Clubbing

I was all set to write about the books I’ve loved getting my literary teeth into during 2021 but it struck me that the biggest difference in my reading world this year has been book club.

Since January I’ve been running a monthly book club so I’ve been pushed to read titles, genres and authors that wouldn’t usually have been my thing.

I was worried that reading a book because I felt obliged to would kill my buzz for reading like my BA in English Lit did. My degree stopped me reading for fun. I felt guilty if I was reading for pleasure rather than reading something for an essay, seminar or tutorial. I devoured books in sixth form but got through very few in Uni, aside from a couple of stand outs like Ian McEwan’s Atonement.

Back to book club and it hasn’t felt like a chore. I’ve loved meeting new people from all sorts of backgrounds in my area, people who have very different lives from me but who all share a love of reading. We have varied tastes, but I think I’ve made it a safe space for us all to have respect for opposing points of view.

One of the highlights has been a live Q&A session with an author and another with an editor. Huge thanks to the Reading Agency for making those happen. It also felt important to explore the work of local authors, something the group’s particularly keen on.

Being part of a book club has exposed some of the members to concepts and ways of life that they have never encountered, and it’s been quite moving to see how a book opened their eyes and gave them a new understanding of people of different races, sexualities, cultures, or periods in time.

It’s the only clubbing I’ve done all year. 10/10 would recommend. No hangovers, no sore feet and far cheaper than the other clubbing. If I were pushed to choose some personal faves from the books I’ve read in 2021 so far, my top five would be:

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Reid Jenkins

Young Skins by Colin Barrett

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

The Survivors by Jane Harper

Which books have your book club delved into this year? Any titles you’re keen to tackle in 2022? Let me know in the comments.

The Elephant and the Buns Book Launch

We popped to the book launch of The Elephant and the Buns at Elephant & Bun Deli in Cowbridge on Sunday and met the lovely author Megan Mattravers. We were lucky enough to be one of the early birds to get a free sticky bun with our book purchase and my youngest was delighted to get his books signed by Megan.

Like Megan’s previous children’s book Vintage Owl, The Elephant and the Buns is based on a true story and set in beautiful Cowbridge with some familiar shops and characters in the gorgeous illustrations from Owain Lewis (who also created the fabulous window display at the deli).

Book launch day at Elephant & Bun Deli in Cowbridge

The book is perfect for older primary school readers who might be overwhelmed by a thick novel without pictures, for confident readers aged 6-9 who are on the journey from picture books to longer stories, or simply for you to share with your younger children when you read to and with them.

The deli was an absolute trove of edible delights. I heartily recommend the sausage rolls. The spherical iced buns were the cherry on the top.

Megan is at the Goodsheds in Barry on Saturday 23rd October for a book reading and book signing event 10am-11am. Tickets are available here:

Book Reading & Signing at Goodsheds

You can buy the book from Megan’s Etsy shop here:

Buy The Elephant and the Buns

It’s a brilliant chance to support a local author and to kick the October half term off with something a bit special.

Local author Megan Mattravers at the book launch of her newest children’s book The Elephant and the Buns

The Pembrokeshire Murders: killing the competition on terrestrial television

One in three people who watch normal television were watching The Pembrokeshire Murders this week. Without the live, appointment viewing lure of Strictly or Bake Off and in an era of on demand overabundance through Netflix and Prime, this is no mean feat for an ITV Drama.

Made in Wales with Welsh actors, the overwhelming takeaway is that we can do it. I live in an area frequently used as a televisual filming location that doubles up as pretty much anywhere (London, Sheffield, Moordale, Billericay, Oxford, other galaxies), that isn’t here (Barry, Penarth, Dinas Powys, Cardiff, Wales in general) so it is astonishingly refreshing to see Welsh locations filmed in Wales. Yes, Cardiff courts were filmed in place of Swansea, a Barry corner shop in place of Milford Haven but it’s closer than usual.

Perhaps it was a reaction to the baffling Stephen Graham accent in White House Farm or the stereotypical lilting Valleeeeys accent that seems to be the go-to Welsh accent, but the use of natural and varied Welsh accents (Newport, Cardiff, a bunch of places further west) really helped embed this production in reality. It smacks of real life that police have moved for their job or haven’t necessarily grown up in the area. The real DSI Steve Wilkins has more of a North West England accent.

The opening credits were reminiscent of the ITV superhit crime drama Broadchurch, with sweeping aerial views of the coast through a cold gritty filter. Interspersed with 70s cine film camcorder footage of seaside days, this set the stall as a three parter that is as much about place as character and action. A refreshing use of a Welsh language soundtrack over these images was another important nod to embracing the Welshness of the story, place and people.

We start with a gratuitous shot of Hollywood’s handsome Welsh man mountain (AKA Gaston) ironing shirts in his pants and vest in front of the world’s biggest window. Turns out it’s just patio doors overlooking the sea but that was my first take. After getting momentarily side-tracked wondering what size shirt Luke Evans wears (men’s shirts are weirdly measured by neck size, how does he get a shirt large enough for his bulging back and biceps but not baggy on the collar. Maybe his neck is deceptively enormous too, perspective and all that) I’m in the action. Our main man is established as a family man with an Olivia Pope style love of red wine with paperwork and low lighting.

I mention this because the domesticity sets the tone. The production is about family and home. It never feels that it is exploiting the grief of the families involved in the crimes, including the victims’ families, the family of the murderer and the families of those undertaking the investigation. John Cooper’s son was interviewed before production and his input into the impact on him and his mother is woven into the episodes beautifully. The ripples of the horrors Cooper committed last for decades. Many scenes are filmed in homes, from the maximalist floral blooms of the Cooper’s lounge to Andrew’s sad and dated place, from Wilkins’s busy contemporary pad to the familial cosy norm of Erin’s living room. The attacks and burglaries took place in homes, near homes and in places that simply felt like a home from home.

Despite briefly diverting from realism in episode two when Andrew/Adrian answered his mobile to an unknown number in a cheery manner (who does that?! Where was the anxiety and suspicion?!), I was pulled through the plot at a pace. Split into three hours of broadcasting, there is no dilly dallying. In much the same way that the investigating team repeatedly refer to their budget and a need to be selective and strategic, so too the production team went about crafting and editing The Pembrokeshire Murders.

Based on the book The Pembrokeshire Murders: Catching the Bullseye Killer by Steve Wilkins, the plot follows our hero and his police team cracking a cold case or three, focusing on John Cooper with a sense of more urgency than is typical of old cases as he is up for parole from jail time for burglary. As the show is about a real life story, it wisely steers clear of showing the murders and maintains a respect for the victims, survivors and their families. As a dramatisation of a true story, it focuses on the processes and tactics used to solve the crimes and convict the criminal.

The success of The Pembrokeshire Murders is partly in the timing, with us all trapped in the house in the evening, but word of mouth has played a huge part in driving up viewer figures. Programming across three midweek 9pm slots appealed to those of us with the lack of patience borne of binge watching.

The cast is awesome with big names like Luke Evans and Keith Allen alongside familiar Welsh actors who leave you wondering where you know them from and actors who you might not have seen before but absolutely hold their own. One I’ve worked with before, one is in my mum’s dog walking circle and several I recognise from stage productions with Sherman Theatre, The Other Room, Omidaze, National Theatre Wales etc. I hope they can use this as a springboard for their careers.

Of course, we’ve seen success and popularity for Wales made thrillers, crime dramas and Cymru-noir in recent years with Hinterland and Keeping Faith. Both were simultaneously filmed in Welsh as Y Gwyll and Un Bore Mercher, both were longer series and neither were based on true stories. I hope that The Pembrokeshire Murders builds an appetite for more Wales made and Wales based work. It has been a challenging year for the creative industries. The film and television sector is a major employer and hub of innovation here in Wales. I think this is a calling card for more and statement of intent for ambitious future productions.

The Pembrokeshire Murders is available to watch on ITV Hub