Why didn’t I stick with the “From The UK…” title? Well, it’s because of history.
I don’t know much about the Welsh-English conflict, but I know it has been, to make it tame, tumultuous. The English (ahem, Monarchy) forced the Welsh people to change their surnames and actively suppressed the Welsh language, to name a couple of instances. Side note: I am learning Welsh through Duolingo! It’s a beautiful and, at times, frustrating language.
Oh, and the Welsh flag is not depicted on the Union Jack. This is due to the Welsh flag being, technically, part of the kingdom of England at the time of its creation. So that awesome Dragon (Draig in Welsh) is absent from the UK flag. One more thing to blame the English for! 😅
The other reason for the title is football. If you weren’t aware, there is a documentary series on FX called Welcome to Wrexham. It follows Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney through their lives as owners of a Welsh football club, Wrexham AFC. It’s a truly great show, highlighting not only the club but also the people who support it. Even when the game results are known, it is at times thrilling. Then it also becomes incredibly heartfelt in its depiction of the citizens of The Town. They love their club as much as they love their town.
All that said…We went to Wales!
After leaving Liverpool, we headed off to our destination in South Wales. With that aforementioned FX show in mind, we took a little stop in Wrexham. It was very brief, as we were on a time crunch.
If you look at the right side of the photo above, you will see The Turf. It’s the white building next to the stadium. It is the local pub for fans of the team. We drove past it, and the parking lot, and I literally said out loud, “Oh! There’s the guy!” The “guy” was Wayne Jones, the owner and operator of The Turf. I don’t know why I was surprised to see the man from the show doing his actual job of running the quick-service burger stand next to the pub, but I was. It was like seeing a celebrity, and there he was, living his life.
After watching the series, we wanted to see a match, but it did not line up this time around. Plus, we had to get to Pembrokeshire for a Pantomime!
After making our way through the windy ways of Wales, we ended up in Pembrokeshire and the town of Llangwm. Our hosts, my partner’s former Au Pair, who now has a family of her own, wanted to take us to something that was a staple in the United Kingdom. That would be a Pantomime, also known as a Panto. In the States, we hear ‘pantomime’ and think about being voiceless, using music to express those words unsaid. That’s not what it means in British.
A Pantomime in the British vernacular refers to a musical or comedy show set to a fairy tale aimed at children but also featuring elements that appeal to adults. The audience is encouraged to participate. Characters will interact with the crowd. The audience will boo the villain and cheer for the prince. I had a few pints before we settled in, and I knew from the jump that this would be something special. The opening number was “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas. I had no idea what was going on but in the best way.
What followed was a retelling of Snow White filled with songs straight out of a jukebox musical, as well as one from a literal musical. “Symphony” by Clean Bandit, and “What is this Feeling?” from Wicked, to name a couple. I was told that most of the cast were locals. There were a few outliers. Our Prince was on Love Island (!) and the Fairy was in an early 2000s pop band, Liberty X. The rest of the cast seemed to be plucked out of the town, and that added to the charm and enjoyment factor. A sense of joy emanated from them. It was palpable and enhanced the experience.
The audience was feeling it. The cast was very animated. We were encouraged to boo the villain, but I thought he was misunderstood and only doing what he was told, even though deep down he didn’t want to. So I cheered for him. I even turned a few other audience boos into cheers. At one point, I managed to get the attention of the Dame and get one of our friends to go up on stage. He then got a pie to the face. Sorry Dylan!
It was, all in all, a really great experience and something wholly unique to this part of the world. It was a great way to begin our Welsh journey.
John Kidde Writes 