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.)

Dance Days with NDCWales

Wowzers. We started our Easter holidays as we meant to go on: having an awesome time. More specifically, dancing. My kids and their mate had a whale of a time with National Dance Company Wales at Dance Days.

I drove us over to Cardiff Bay, parked in the Red Dragon Centre (because I’d rather buy a coffee and ice creams in Cadwalader’s to validate my parking than just throw pound coins away in a car park machine) and trotted over to the Dance House, the home of NDCWales in Wales Millennium Centre.

Guy, the organiser of Dance Days, greeted us with a smile at the door. Guy is calm, warm and helpful so put the three boys at ease and made them feel really welcome. Going along to courses and workshops like this in the holidays isn’t only about the facilitator, it’s also about all the other people you meet and talk to along the way.

Dance Days are our national dance company’s way of introducing contemporary dance to children and young people, using the choreographic ideas that their professional touring company perform around the world. For context, my boys don’t go to regular dance classes but their friend goes to street dance on the weekly and all three of them were buzzing when they came out. Experience level didn’t matter. There’s no specialist kit to wear, they take part in bare feet and comfy clothes so no one feels like the odd one out or a newbie in the wrong gear.

The children don’t stay for the whole day. It’s split into two sessions of 3 hours for 7-11 year olds in the morning and 12-16 year olds in the afternoon. My dancing trio were 7, 7 and 10 and it was perfectly pitched at them and the other children in the group.

The date and timing worked out well for me (selfish!) as I had a work meeting in the Bay that morning but from all the little scooters that accompanied younger siblings at pick up time I think most families made the most of the location and school holiday by zooming across the Barrage during Dance Days. We also had a crack at the free crafting in the Wales Millennium Centre foyer on our walk back to the car.

You could opt to do one day at £15 or two days at £25 per child. I worked through the holidays and couldn’t get the logistics to work out for two days. It would have been more convenient for me to have them both in one place for a full day but I appreciate for the younger dancers that it might be a bit much and it’s not designed for babysitting or childcare (but that is a Brucey Bonus of taking kids to this sort of thing). If money’s a barrier, NDCWales also offer some Dance Days tickets at £5.

At the end of the hour session, the grown-ups and siblings were invited to watch a “quick sharing of what they’ve been up to”. The amount of work that they showed back to us was bonkers.

I particularly loved the general positive vibe in the room. There were no show offs, they were all happy and silly but behaving respectfully, working together and listening to the dance ambassador who led the session. A diverse bunch of children of difference abilities and ages all worked together and shared something really special.

They didn’t just spend the three hours learning routines. They had creative tasks using Caroline Finn’s choreographic ideas that the company use in Revellers’ Mass, one of their 2019 touring productions. In this case, they were greeting partners as they met from opposite sides of the stage; what might start with a handshake or a high five becomes a back roll, jump or cartwheel. They also learnt a to dance part of the show, quite a gestural section that the children performed with real earnestness.

I’ve gone into so much detail about the “quick sharing” because I also ended up taking my sons to see National Dance Company Wales perform Awakening, their spring tour at Sherman Theatre, Cardiff. I’d been regretful about my possibly optimistic plan to take them to a night of three contemporary dance works. On the train. For the evening show. They were being boisterous but I’d paid my money so we’d give it a go. I’m so glad we did.

The piece that informed the Dance Days session was the longest of the night, it didn’t have the same visual trickery of the first two (which they loved but I’ll have to write that up separately so this doesn’t become a novella), it was later in the evening, past bedtime and I only had the dregs of the sweeties left. I needn’t have fretted. They were gripped. They gasped a little in delighted surprise and whispered “it’s the same music, we know this!” and subtly echoed the moves on stage that they’d remembered from Dance Days. That connection between physically putting their own bodies into learning moves, exploring the choreographer’s ideas, creatively problem solving then seeing actual real life dancers perform to the same music sparked something in them. Respect for the craft? A connection with the performance? Feeling involved in something exquisite and different? Maybe all of that, maybe none of it but it’s an experience that’s stayed with them.

New dates are on the NDCWales website

Dance Days aren’t just for keeno dancing kids. The sessions for ages 7-11 are especially great for kids who are just happy to give something a bit different a go. Head over to the NDCWales website for details of future Dance Days: ndcwales.co.uk (CLUE: there are some coming up at the end of July)

*We were very kindly invited to take part in this event in return for a review. I bought our own tickets for the show at the Sherman. Dance Days are well worth the price and they do offer some bursaries if money is a barrier for you.

Romeo and Juliet: Shakespeare and circus skills

If your idea of taking your children to see a Shakespeare play is a hellish few hours of numb bums and boredom then let the latest offering from Omidaze Productions change your mind.

We all know the Romeo and Juliet story. I had a mild obsession with the Baz Luhrmann film in my teens (still my top soundtrack album), my kids are more familiar with Gnomeo and Juliet and if you’ve never seen West Side Story where’ve you been?! It’s the perfect gateway play into the world of the Bard.

With a young and diverse cast of actors, this version from director Yvonne Murphy goes a step further in shaking up Shakespeare. Aerial circus skills add excitement to the experience with Lady Capulet elegantly twisting on silks and Romeo’s mates throwing banter around on swinging hoops. The audience don’t sit behind an invisible fourth wall but walk, sit and perch amongst the action, getting up close and personal with each scene.

This show is recommended for ages 7 and up. My eight year old is really looking forward to it. I take him to a lot of theatre (the perks of a mum working in the arts) but he’s never seen anything quite like this before. Family friendly theatre doesn’t have to mean puppetry and slapstick (don’t get me wrong, I love a bit of both) so give it a go and take your tribe.

 

Romeo and Juliet has been co-produced by Omidaze Productions with Wales Millennium  Centre and after touring Mod, Llanelli and Brecon they’ll be back in Cardiff on 27th April – 14th May. Get your tickets sharpish because they’ve a tendency to sell out. Tickets and details: Romeo and Juliet

ACCESS INFO: There’s captioning at each show and BSL interpretation on Thursday 11th May at Wales Millennium Centre by Sami Thorpe. There’s also a tactile model and a touch tour for blind and visually impaired audience members as well as audio description on Thursday 11th May 7pm and Saturday 13th May 2pm at Wales Millennium Centre by Alistair Sill.

Photography by Kirsten McTernan