The Cardiff Fringe Festival opened with a debut of Weeping Tudor’s productions latest theatre based endeavour, Everything Changes, featuring local storyteller and writer Bevin Magama.

Situated in the well-known student haunt of AJ’s coffee house on City Road, Everything Changes l is innovative in its taking of dramatic places to venues that are “outside of the norm” of the regular institutions in the city, making theatre more accessible.

The performance is a two-piece performance that focuses on storytelling, dipping and out of our ideas of myth, legend and storytelling. This is demonstrated in Ellis’ piece on the cultural memory of Saint Teilio. Equally, this was explored by Bevin’s various pieces, one of which explored his relationship with his grandmother as a child and later on using a call and response mechanism to engage the audience (rather successfully, may I add).

The interdisciplinary nature of the creative work demonstrates something a bit more: a marked effort in bridging thematic elements and storytelling traditions of Zimbabwe and local Welsh Celtic traditions. It’s been done to great effect in this performance with the use of i.e., traditions instrumentation to hone that point and hone that fusion.

The performance […] focuses on storytelling, dipping and out of our ideas of myth, legend and storytelling.

The concept of this piece is fascinating and born out in a lived reality of high-quality theatre. A lab is a totally new work, a work in progress if you will. Everything Changes was presented as by the Fringe Festival as a lab. Owing to the legacies of gentrification and our ideas of both high and low art, Ellis’ exit into the City Road junction allowed for an appreciation of the beauty of everyday life to focus on the intimate details of an urban scene.

This was an excellent, experimental and thought-provoking ending. I’d recommend watching this and keeping an eye on both of them in the future.

Rating: ****

(four stars because it’s a work in progress)