Lost in translation

The performance goes really well. Standing ovation.

We then settle down to watch the Portuguese version of my play. I watch the actor, and listen to the script via a translator.
What a strange experience, seeing such a familiar story to me played out in another language, performed in a different way to our version, but compelling, funny, and poignant.

I laugh at moments that have passed and Ioan tells me to stop laughing so loudly. I forget there is a delay.

I say to myself , you must savour the moment. Seeing my play being performed in a theatre in Rio, with people listening and enjoying the performance.

Feel very overwhelmed that from an initial idea told to me by Roy Davies, all those years ago, to this, an appreciative and enthusiastic audience half way around the world.

Luisa Massarani, the director of Museu Da Vida invites us to speak about the work of Theatr na n'Óg, and to a discussion about science and art, concentrating specifically on theatre as a resource to teach science.

It is an extremely knowledgeable audience, who talk passionately and eloquently about the power of theatre in illustrating quite complicating theories and processes.

It is fascinating and so inspirational. I start to think about a possible performance of our production to scientists and educationalists back home, to open up the debate on how to use theatre to teach science.

I have never really experienced simultaneous translation before, being a welsh speaker, I have never had the need to use the headphones in meetings or conferences.

A physicist asks me a question. I still have my headphones on, so as I answer, I'm hearing the Portuguese in my ear. I start to speak like Dory in Finding Nemo, speaking Whale, slow and deliberate. I take the headphones off.

And I'm off. The translator keeps up, and I think they get what I'm trying to say. We have created a play for young people about the man who co-discovered the theory of evolution by natural selection, so they will possibly struggle with the actual complexities of the theory, but for me it is more about introducing them to an exciting world of exploration. The story, the play is a springboard into that world, ready for them to investigate further. A play for curious minds.

We finish by presenting Luisa with a photograph of Sgwd yr Eira in the Neath Vale. A place close to Wallace's heart.

There is then a reception of guava juice, cake and an abundance of mosquitoes!

Music Plays

The day of the performance. Car is picking us up at 11.00pm. Performance 1.30pm

And the day starts badly. As Ioan gets the costume and the props together for the show, my only responsibility is to go to my suitcase and fetch the CD for the soundtrack.
Zip, zip.
No CD!
That's all I had to do, was to be in charge of music! I search everywhere for it. No CD. So after running in 10 different directions at once. I do what I always do in situations like this - I call Eric. He just tells me calmly to download the music from Itunes, and then burn a disc!

Of course. Simple. Panic over. Music on laptop ready to go.

A car picks us up and takes us to the museum for the performance. The taxi driver doesn't know where he is going and heads into one of the favellas. I now realise that by having my laptop with me, I have my entire work on the laptop, my scripts, my research for stories, photos for shows etc, and I am heading into a favella in a tourist's taxi .

Why don't I ever back up? Must back up!

I wonder if this is what Wallace felt as he watched the ship burn with his entire collection of insects and birds onboard, which he had spent 3 years of his life collecting in the Amazon.

Note to self - Must backup!

The taxi backs up, out of the favella and we are on our way.

We meet the actor and the director of the Brazilian version of the show, and it is freaky seeing two Wallaces together, they look so alike.
It's like a scene from Spartacus
I am Wallace. No I am Wallace.

I set about burning the music onto disc in the office, as I look up on the wall next to the directors computer, I see the now very familiar photo of Wallace in Singapore on the wall. It is the same photo I used as the model for the costume.
"I use this as inspiration for the character's costume" Wanda, the director explains.
So did I.
Coincidence? Possibly, but not likely in my mind. The CD is burnt and slides out of the computer.

I set up the sound in the technical box of the theatre. It is a lovely theatre space, small and intimate, not dissimilar to The Dylan Thomas Theatre, where we perform our plays in the autumn.

Sound checked.

I go down to the stage. Ioan is excited and eager to do the play. I am just nervous.

But then I am always nervous before a show. Worse than the actors really. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that as soon as it starts, if anything goes wrong you can't stop it, it's out of your hands, out of your control. Its like being on a rollercoaster, you just have to enjoy the ride.

The play is to start at 1.30pm. Audience is still arriving at 1.50pm.

2pm, and its full.

Standby LX 1 Sound Q 1 (that's me)

LX1 Sound Q1 Go.

Music plays and we begin.