{150}: Interview with Marc Rees

Marc Rees, photographed by Warren Orchard

This feature was first published on May 27th, 2015 by Arts Scene in Wales

In July 1865, a converted tea-clipper called the Mimosa sailed into harbour on the Chubut coastline of Argentina with around 150 Welsh men, women and children aboard. They'd left Liverpool docks full of hope and trepidation, wondering what their new lives as Welsh settlers in the Argentinean region of Patagonia would be like.

It was the idea of a preacher from Bala to have a "little Wales beyond Wales", which could not be corrupted or assimilated by Western English-speaking culture as had happened in North America.

And it is this historic journey, the trials and tribulations of setting up the colony, and how the descendants of those colonists live today, that has inspired Marc Rees's {150} project, a unique collaboration between the two national theatres of Wales.

Stories from a Crowded Room (Galeri, Caernarfon)

Have you ever been in a restaurant enjoying your food, perhaps a juicy steak or a spicy jambalaya, and the waitress has asked if "everything's OK with your meal"? And you've said yes, but actually meant no? Have you ever tried to avoid someone you recognise by crossing the street so that you didn't have to speak to them? Have you ever tried to connect with someone, but they just missed the point?

The intricacies of human nature are what Stories from a Crowded Room is all about. It's about love and loss, rejection and companionship, anger and solitude. What Earthfall has accomplished in this magnificently immersive dance performance is highly effective, affecting and intensely personal to those gathered to observe.