Intensely thought-provoking and emotive: join us for this 45-minute fusion of opera, dance and poetry. A collaboration with Music Theatre Wales.

Unclean Beasts challenges societal norms through opera, dance, and film, spotlighting the clash between tradition and the need for change.

“Filth!”

“On your knees and beg for forgiveness”

Cancelled and reviled in the media, Edward Prosser Rhys had to face a storm of abuse in reaction to his poem ATGOF winning one of Wales’s most prestigious cultural prizes. He dared to speak the truth through art, but was met with shock and repulsion.

This was 100 years ago, but it might just as well have been today, when voices daring to diverge from the norm are still met with resistance.

Edward Prosser Rhys’s depictions of sex and lust and inclusion of a romance between two young men in his poem was a bold reflection of his reality, challenging the societal norms of his time, a time when homosexuality was still illegal, and would be for another 40 years. Yet, it was the response of those who chose to both “rebuke and reward” his creative expression that truly highlighted the era’s complexities and biases.

Following his outrageously successful, Abomination: A DUP Opera, Conor Mitchell once again crafts an operatic exploration into the heart of societal upheaval.

This newly commissioned performance combines an operatic monologue performed by tenor Elgan Llŷr Thomas, and a reflective piece by dancer/actor Eddie Ladd. Bwystfilod Aflan will scrutinise the societal shockwaves triggered by Atgof, probing into the changes within the country, its retained secrets, and the undercurrents of modernism. Through the lens of opera, dance and film, we witness the clash between enduring beliefs and the imperative for change, in an exciting and imaginative piece created in collaboration with and directed by Jac Ifan Moore and designed by Elin Steele.

“Better suited to Sodom and Gomorrah than to Wales.”

“Pollute and corrupt”

Composed by Conor Mitchell, featuring performances by Elgan Llŷr Thomas and Eddie Ladd, and directed by Jac Ifan Moore. Performed in Welsh with English surtitles.