Flowers of the dead red sea

We went last night to the Rosemary Branch pub and theatre to see Rhodri performing in Ed Thomas's Flowers of the dead red sea. There is another performance tonight and it follows performances in Aber and will be followed by one on Cardiff Saturday night (Richard Burton Theatre). It features two men working in an abattoir and talking. The action is regularly broken up by the experience of junk falling from the sky. Rhodri and Matt Christmas act it out very well. There is some black comedy and interest is sustained throughout. It is not a particularly Welsh play I thought though the men are South Walians (Joe and Mock, short perhaps for Morgan) and there are references to Tom Jones and to the language. The drowning theme is a very Welsh one too when you think of reservoirs. The over arching theme, however, is late twentieth century western European angst in the absurdist manner. I have long been cynical about absurdist theatre so I was not best placed to appreciate it. As a teenager I avoided pubs but once again I found myself in one (Eleri and I had a very nice meal) to see one of my sons perform (Dylan would gig in pubs in his rock band years). They are much nicer now smoking is banned.