Welcome – here’s all the information you’ll need about our fantastic autumn tour, written by Charles Way!
Due to ill health, Louise Osborn is unable to direct the show – we really hope she’ll be well again soon. Charles Way, the writer of Ill Met by Moonlight has now stepped in and will be directing the show!
In a serendipitous turn of fate – Hijinx have their first performance at Whitchurch High School in Cardiff. Over the years this has been our first performance venue for the autumn tour – every year since 1998 bar one! That first production was Ill Met by Moonlight so it seems appropriate that, on our very last community tour in it’s present guise, that we begin the tour there again. Make sure you check out the tour schedule page and book your tickets early to avoid disappointment – this will be updated as and when we add more dates.
When you’ve seen the show it would be great to hear what you thought of it! You can leave your comments here! Thanks so much – and enjoy the show!
Remember, if you’d like to make a comment about the show and/or the site, please do!
Don’t forget to check out the updated tour schedule – any new dates will be added from time to time
Check out the BBC Arts Wales blog about the show:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/walesarts/2010/09/hijinx_theatre_autumn_tour_ill_met_by_moonlight.html
My wife and I saw the show at Haddo House tonight – thought it was a great production. Charming story, acting and singing. All the best for the rest of the tour.
Thank you so much – we’re very proud of this production and thrilled to have been able to come on tour to Scotland!
Mr Nick Capaldi
Arts Council of Wales
Bute Place,
Cardiff,
CF10 5AL
Dear Mr Capaldi,
I promised myself that I’d write a letter of support for the Hijinx Theatre group, when I stumbled out of our community theatre with my mind and soul ringing with the pleasure and craft of their sublime and sweet touring production of a little happy play named as “Ill Met by Moonlight”.
The venue being the hall of the Findhorn Foundation here in north east Scotland. With an audience of about eighty people. Plenty of young, and kids with parents.
I want to tell you the play was sustained magic. I was infused and enthused again and again by the profound story of the mythic connection of Nature and Humanity, which is really a story about the universal nature of us humans.
I want to cry with the pleasure of living in a society which values and supports this kind of travelling art work.
The kids got it. It got into the kids. So much goodness in one evening. A vaccination and a cure for whatever ails you, all in the same setting. The NHS couldn’t do better than be patrons for this group, and all like them.
This live work is so good for us. The players were lovely and skilled and warm and bright. The set was simple and just right. One hard working young woman supporting the players. Small is good.
Okay. Enough. That’s mostly what I needed to tell you.
Well done and thank you in turn for your support for this whole enterprising theatre group.
Good wishes. May all your dreams turn to gold.
Ian Turnbull
Review – THE STAGE
Published Friday 22 October 2010 at 17:38 by Bernard Bale
If I had known that the villain was going to throw cakes into the audience I would not have bothered with my tea. That is just one of the surprises in this very unusual production – sadly the last community play from Hijinx Theatre Company, a victim of Arts Council Wales funding cuts.
The tale unfolding on stage is one of general mayhem, created by Gwarwyn-a-Throt, the last of the strange Welsh Bwcas, and his attempts to mess up the blossoming love between two country folk in need of each other. Gwarwyn-a-Throt (what a great name) has agreed a bet with his changeling, Hedydd, boasting that he can force her to become his wife when the human love story collapses. He does not however, succeed because of underestimating the power of love for which even his strengths and cleverness has no match.
Michael Wagg is the villainous but often comical and certainly sly Gwarwyn, a bit of a show stealer really, as the audience reacts every time he walks on stage no matter what disguise he is wearing at the time. So well done Michael and also well done Katy Owen who is excellent as Hedydd, his reluctant but gritty prisoner. Hannah McPake plays the love-seeking Mary Morris to Stephen Hickman’s bachelor farmer, Samuel Jenkins.
They all inter-react brilliantly in a production which is a tribute to the writing and directing of Charles Way. And loved the sets, the sort that make live drama so much more inviting.
Ill Met By Moonlight is well met by stagelight
“A truly, lovely, fairy story”
by Debra Hall for remotegoat on 21/10/10
This is an example of where quality writing has provided a solid foundation for this excellent show, together with the support of grants and donations and the help of a dedicated people working behind the scenes that have provided the building blocks necessary to present a currently touring production of great worth. The company, Hijinx has taken some excellent decisions and been insightful; this clearly demonstrated in stage management and set design of the highest class, and lastly, and by no means least, the sourcing of a cast of four impressive and versatile actors.
I am going to devote this review largely to the work of the play’s writer, Charles Way, because I love it when writers take the bare bones of an original theme or character and create a completely new piece of writing from it. A noteworthy idea, on Way’s part, to introduce us to the character, Gwarwyn a Throt (Michael Wagg) – who happens to be a descendant of Puck from Shakespeare’s A Mid Summer Night’s Dream. And detectable too, that Way has mimicked the theme of ‘Dream’ in the fact that enchantments mess with the mind and love interests of the characters, which results in much misunderstanding and confusion, and, subsequently,this allows much scope for comedy to befall. And all goes a long way to ensure that the eventual conclusion satisfies and that the outcome had been willed and hoped for by each and every member of the audience right from the commencement of the play’s opening scene.
The cast introduce themselves as storytellers, and this production is simply a truly, lovely, fairy story. One of mystique and legend centred on ancient rural customs and culture, and the rigour of season led labour and celebrations. The kind of traditional story that the generations have grown up knowing, and have passed on; where adversity has been overcome despite the influence of dark and mysterious forces and strange occurrences. Unfortunately, new versions that do a good job in representing this kind of familiar narrative are few and far between these days. This rendition however, is successful and significant in encapsulating that secret ingredient and so will have wide appeal.
Way also includes many comedic lines about the attitudes of people who settle in border territories. This touring company has performed and is due to perform in communities across England and Wales and many one liners will make one chuckle over the inverted snobbery and indignations of folk, whichever side of the Herefordshire border they happen to be seated and enjoying the show.
A couple of negatives, albeit very minor, but I found myself to be at times pre-occupied with the hair dos of the two actresses. Perhaps it would be a good idea to lose those heavy fringes with a hair pin or two? Also, the black nylon tights! Some attention to authenticity required. And a couple of songs with nursery rhyme connections took me back, in my mind, to the kind of affected performance of children’s TV presenters of Playschool back in the 70s – not good.