'A Child's Christmas' at Sadler's Wells

A few years ago Cerys Matthews issued a record of her reciting poems by Dylan Thomas, particularly 'A Child's Christmas', with music by Mason Neely. That was the basis for this new show by Ballet Cymru, using Cerys's narration and their dance.

The first part of the show is Cerys reading poems while the Ballet dance followed by an interval and then we had 'A Child's Christmas'. We were lucky enough to Cerys in person reading the poems in the first half on stage while a recording of her voice was used for the dance sequence for 'A Child's Christmas'. It was lovely to see her on stage again even though she was hidden under a big hat and her bright red boots were a distraction.

I wasn't sure what to expect and I'd never been to the Lilian Baylis Studio at Sadler's Wells before so it was an evening of surprises. Keyboards at the edge of the stage and  seat for Cerys with an empty stage for the Ballet to use and slowly fill with dancers. It wasn't so much ballet as modern dance, often interpretive of the text of the poetry and you know what? It worked. The choreography was mainly a subtle reflection of the texts being read with some random moves and athleticism, a leap here and a roll there, but none of it felt out of place. I mean, how do you choreograph a dance to 'Do not go gentle' or to 'Death shall have no dominion'? Not an easy task.

The real joy, for me at least, was 'A Child's Christmas', with Cerys's accent pronouncing those melodious words telling the truth about Christmas from a young boy's perspective. The dance was enhanced with a video projection onto the screen at the back with lots of snow falling down. The dancing was quite literal but also quite joyous - we see the boys pelting the cats with snowballs and the uncles handing out cigars, bringing the tale to life. It was quite magical in it's own way, bringing small town Vallies Wales to life through the magic of Christmas and snow. I really liked the energy and joy of the production but why is it on at the start of November? It should be in December. It would be ideal for a BBC2 or Channel 4 programme around Christmas time.

There wasn't a cast list saying who played which role - and they all played many roles - but I really liked the dancers who played the young Dylan and his slightly tipsy aunt drinking cocktails who I think were Xolisweh Richards and Krystal Lowe. I also liked Robbie Moorcroft and Daniel Morrison as strong centrepieces in the twisting, twirling dances. Looking at the biographies in the programme, it's dd to see that none of the cast were from Wales.

If you want to hear Cerys reading Dylan Thomas you could always get her record. I already have it but only play it in December in the run up to Christmas. It worth getting, trust me.