The Gathering / Yr Helfa
“ The Gathering / Yr Helfa is a powerful exploration of the annual cycle of sheep farming. Performed in Snowdonia 12-14 September, the production took audiences through the stunning landscape on a remarkable journey on foot through installations and performances.”
Read more about the project at the National Theatre Wales page.
Created and directed by Louise Ann Wilson, the production features new poetry by Wales’ national poet, Gillian Clarke, with sound, film, and movement.
The Gathering is created by National Theatre Wales with Migrations & Louise Ann Wilson Company, in association with National Trust and supported by Snowdonia National Park’s Sustainable Development Fund.
“★★★★ Grows organically from its setting.
This is a piece that makes you look and listen hard – to the unaccompanied voice of a boy singing, to Gillian Clarke’s poetic script... it’s lyrical but unsentimental, bloody and brutal. It makes the mountain sing.”
“Evoked the natural drama of its stunning mountain setting.There was at least one moment of pure, hair-prickling magic. As the mournful sounds of the Seindorf Arian Deiniolen Silver Band reverberated around the landscape surrounding the famous Gladstone Rock, pockmarked by piles of slate from long abandoned quarries, it was like hearing the mountains sing.”
Music and Production Credits
Composed and Managed by Tic Ashfield and John Hardy