NEW WELSH REVIEW

Extracts from Chris Ricket’s review of CPR’s book A Performance Cosmology

…To read of the early years is to get a sense of a company working at something intense, provocative and full of experimentation. At times uncertain and chaotic it may have been, but it was clearly a period full of exchange and influence. Cardiff Laboratory Theatre and then CPR have had an enormous influence on theatre in Wales. Through all the touring, collaboration and networking they have instigated, they have made a similar impact on theatre internationally. And the international arena for CPR and its peers has been a rich interrogation of form, origin and purpose.

Any notion of stylistic hierarchy has been replaced by a commitment to recognise
and explore the matter at the core of performance, with CPR both drawing inspiration from theatre makers and performers throughout the world and offering its own inspiration and opportunity in return….

‘Evidence of the Past’ reveals CPR’s, and in particular Richard Gough’s, playfulness.
His ‘Perfect Time: Imperfect Tense’ is a record of a presentation in which the characteristics and importance of creativity and the backroom work of every cultural organisation are recorded through objects that emphasise the ephemerality and everydayness of performance artefact. It is a stimulating, serious and enjoyable mix.

Have I properly digested all its 320 large format pages? No, I don’t think so. Importantly, what I do know is that I will keep returning to it. Re-reading, re-treading.

Formerly Director of Wales Arts International, Chris Ricketts was recently appointed Director of the Sherman Theatre (Sherman Cymru) in Cardiff