Theatre in 'Other' Spaces: Welsh Drama and Theatre, 1900–1950

This chapter offers a novel perspective on the history of half a century of Welsh drama and theatre. By bringing a broad and inclusive range of dramatic and theatrical projects into view, at a national level, it re-evaluates the significance of what might well seem a period of fragmented and sometimes, frustrated development. The journey begins, at the turn of the twentieth century, with the National Pageant of Wales, 1909, and comes to an end with the broadcasting of Wales’s most famous radio play, Buchedd Garmon. The chapter’s main contention is that the period 1900–1950 was a formative era in terms of the development of a sense of theatricality that came to maturity much later in the century and ultimately enabled Welsh drama and theatre to play a leading role in a much, broader, international context. The different strands of this theatricality are drawn together across half a century; from the confident spectacle of the pageant, the best of Wales’s new text-based drama, its amateur and semi-professional production, and the achievements of Welsh radio drama from the late twenties onwards. Ultimately, a claim is made for the key impact of this half-century on late twentieth- and twenty-first-century theatre in Wales and beyond.