Land of Our Fathers (Venue Cymru, Llandudno)

Land of Our Fathers is set on Thursday, May 3rd, 1979. Or rather, the story begins on that day. It's more accurate to say that Land of Our Fathers is set throughout May 1979, because the protagonists are six South Walian coal miners trapped hundreds of feet beneath ground following a colliery accident. It's a chamber piece boasting a bland but beautifully realised set (well done Signe Beckman) and six wonderfully written characters. But is the story strong enough to hold the attention for two and a half hours?

A play this long needs to have enough twists and turns to really demand the attention of the audience, and indeed Land of Our Fathers does have its fair share of soapy revelations and melodrama. I'm not altogether sure what does happen warrants such a taxing duration; it could have been shorter without much damage to the plot. Some might say the play is as much an endurance test for those watching as being trapped beneath ground for days on end is for the miners. That's one way of looking at it. But to be honest, the audience is not trapped down a mine and might appreciate a little more brevity.

The fact this is set on the day Margaret Thatcher got elected as Prime Minister gives poignancy, but not focus, to the play. The miners are aware of what might be happening politically on the surface. Curly is steadfastly against the Tories, with their "sharp elbows and shallow pockets", while young Mostyn wonders if having a "female Winston Churchill" will be good for the country. The poignancy comes in the audience knowing what really came to pass. Thatcher was arguably both those things, making her military mark in the Falklands, as well as bringing about the decline and fall of the British coal mining industry.

Apart from brief references to the General Election and Thatcher, this play might as well have been set in any other year. The politics of 1979 are a background to the play, not the focus. This might seem surprising, but it's actually quite refreshing. Welsh coal miners and 1980s politics has been done to death, so it's nice to have a play which looks at something new within that context.

Tomos Eames (Curly), Taylor
Jay-Davies (Chewy) and Robert
Jezek (Hovis)

Brothers Chewy and Curly less than subtly represent the well-trodden standard of tradition versus ambition. Curly is staunchly loyal to his homeland and his family, and looks no further than what he has around him to satisfy his life. Coal mining is a family tradition, and he reels at Chewy's ambition to leave South Wales for London for a new, better life, where he can pursue his love of art and, as he puts it, grow. Curly is having none of this and believes his younger brother would be back in Wales within a week. Is he lacking faith in his sibling, or is he jealous of Chewy's open-ended thinking? There is a tiny hint that Curly is suppressing something that would probably never see the light of day in a coal mining community in 1980s South Wales, so it's kinder to read Curly as simply jealous or afraid rather than an all-out philistine.

There's a lovely relationship which develops between veteran Bomber (his surname's Lancaster) and wet behind the ears Mostyn. Bomber has seen and done it all, swears like a trooper (or rather, a whole army of them!) and balks at young Mostyn's love of musical theatre and his devotion to his mam. But Bomber knows the truth of why Mostyn has grown up the way he has - a lack of a father figure has made Mostyn too reliant on his mother. But there's a secret among the six men which will throw fresh light on this plot strand too. It does feel a little too Coronation Street to be properly compelling, but it fills the characters out well, particularly mummy's boy Mostyn, who develops from a weak, submissive newbie to a more outspoken and opinionated member of the group as the play wears on. There's one particular incident which forces Mostyn to man up and demonstrates his desperate search for a father figure.

There are other themes in the play too, such as that of leadership and making a difference. The group's leader Chopper states that all he wants to do in life is make a mark, have an impact, which is ironic when you know the full story. Chopper has been denying the perfect way for him to make his mark for far too long. It seems obvious to the audience, but in no way is it obvious to Chopper.

Robert Jezek as Hovis

Finally there's Hovis, a Polish war veteran whose presence brings an added dimension to the play. It's interesting to have a Pole in the cast of characters as it is unexpected, but this only serves to emphasise a less than subtle drawing of parallels with Britain in 2015, when immigration from Europe is a much more topical subject. Playwright Chris Urch is making the point that Britain has always received and welcomed foreigners to its shores, and those foreigners have integrated and become key parts of our working communities. This is addressed in one powerful but brief exchange in the first half, and then never touched upon again. The fact Hovis is Polish serves just one two-minute scene. It should have coloured more of the character and the way he reacts to proceedings. As it is, it feels undercooked.

The cast is excellent, but then it has to be. It's a long play and most of the characters are on stage most of the time. It's a harrowing experience, not least because the set is so depressing and the costumes are obviously bland and dirty, so the actors have to have strong hearts to get through this material every night. John Cording gives a spirited turn and tempers Bomber's harsh side with a lovely twinkle in the performance. The scene where he tries to teach Mostyn to dance is lovely. Joshua Price is perfectly vulnerable and innocent as Mostyn, and develops the character expertly as he moves from bullied innocent to a more forthright contributor. Robert Jezek is warm and reassuring as Hovis, and utterly convincing in the part, while Taylor Jay-Davies makes the ambitious Chewy a stand-out character, someone the audience can relate to and feel for. Cornelius Booth's Chopper is headstrong, taciturn and stubborn, but as the play approaches its end, the cracks in Chopper's veneer begin to show, and Booth demonstrates a range the role doesn't completely afford him.

Land of Our Fathers publicity image

Special mention for Tomos Eames as Curly. There's much depth in his performance, and in Urch's writing, and Eames brings it all out subtly but beautifully. He's a strong presence on stage, but never so much as to overshadow his colleagues. And when he demonstrates his party piece of being able to recite the entire Periodic Table, you'll gasp in wide-eyed admiration. There'll be applause too!

I was warned on two separate occasions by two very concerned ushers that there was a lot of swearing in Land of Our Fathers, which is to be expected. After all, they're miners. But the level of foul language is truly off the scale here. I'm no prude, and I can swear just as hard as the next man, but there are parts of this play where the f-word and c-word seem to form the very foundation of the dialogue used, and for me it was just too much. Swearing may well have been a mainstay of colliery life in this way, and so using it so freely makes it authentic. But I question the need to make it quite as authentic as it is here. The over-use of bad language is unnecessarily distracting. I wasn't offended, just annoyed. There were plenty of offended people around me though: I heard gasps and tutting and plenty of outraged comment about it in the interval. Profanity is one of the most powerful tools in the English language, but when used to this exhausting extent, it begins to have no effect at all other than to annoy.

And that's a shame, because this play has so much to say about leadership, adolescence, male insecurities, class and aspiration. It just doesn't need to say it at quite so much length, and with such a potty mouth.

The stats
Writer: Chris Urch
Director: Paul Robinson
Cast: Joshua Price (Mostyn); Taylor Jay-Davies (Chewy); John Cording (Bomber); Tomos Eames (Curly); Robert Jezek (Hovis); Cornelius Booth (Chopper)
Performed at Venue Cymru, Llandudno, November 11th to 12th, 2015. Performance reviewed: November 11th, 2015

Links
Land of Our Fathers on Venue Cymru website (retrieved Nov 10 2015)
Land of Our Fathers website (retrieved Nov 10 2015)
Land of Our Fathers tour trailer 1 (retrieved Nov 13 2015)
Land of Our Fathers tour trailer 2 (retrieved Nov 13 2015)
Chris Urch rehearsal video diary (2013) (retrieved Nov 10 2015)
Land of Our Fathers crowdfunding video (2013) (retrieved Nov 10 2015)