Roots branches out at Clwyd Theatr Cymru

Oct 20 2011 by Steve Stratford, North Wales Weekly News

ARNOLD Wesker’s groundbreaking trilogy Chicken Soup with Barley, Roots and I’m Talking About Jerusalem was written on the cusp of the 1960s and introduced a radical new voice to the British stage.

His expression of new ideas, dreams and hopes put Wesker alongside Pinter and Osborne as one of the “Angry Young Men” who emerged from the Royal Court Theatre in London to bring the experience of working class people and their lives onto the British stage for the first time.

Roots, Wesker’s revolutionary, lyrical play about self-discovery, is relocated to Wales in a new production by Clwyd Theatr Cymru associate director Kate Wasserberg.

Beatie Bryant is home from London for a holiday, full of love and admiration for Ronnie, her bright Jewish boyfriend, but frustrated by her dull family.

As she counts down the weeks to Ronnie’s first visit, she tells her family about him and their life in London. Beatie is convinced she has found a new, better way to live. But without Ronnie to guide her, can she learn to think for herself?

Roots is in part based on Wesker’s own relationship with Doreen Bicker, a young waitress who he met and fell in love with while working as a kitchen porter in Norwich. They married in 1958.

Roots, in its various published forms, has now sold over half a million copies.

Beatie is played by Caryl Morgan who for the last three years has played Izzy Evans in Welsh soap Pobol y Cwm, while Catrin Aaron plays Pearl and Sion Pritchard plays Frank.

Roots at Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold, October 27 to November 19. Call 0845 330 3565 or see clwyd-theatr-cymru.co.uk