“…incredible twists and turns that you won’t see coming and you can only experience it by coming to see this play.”
That’s how Molly Pugh, a cast member in Theatre Adhoc’s next production in the Congress Theatre (Monday 28 April 7pm), describes what the audience can expect.
Theatre Adhoc is known for its comedies, short plays, pantos and support for new writers.
But ‘The Greater Good’, written by Julia Lewis is something new for them. I went to Llantarnam Village Hall to see them rehearse and find out more.
In a lovely flashback, Molly told me she was a former pupil at Croesyceiliog School and appeared in several of their plays. I whipped out my phone and found a review I wrote of their production of Grease in December 2016. She took on the part of Rizzo in a show that blew me away. She’s now 26 and from those early days on the school stage, she’s now part of a successful theatre group,
‘Sense of family’
Molly joined Theatre Adhoc in 2018 and was in ‘Keeping Up Appearances’. She told me:”It’s where I really got the bug for this amazing theatre group and got the sense of family, and community that they offer and provide.
“They’ve been incredibly supportive of me. I was diagnosed with epilepsy in 2021 and when I lost my licence for a year and couldn’t drive to rehearsals members of the theatre group came to my aid and drove me back and forth to support me and make sure I could continue to do something that I loved and brought me a great sense of joy.
“Julia’s plays are some of my favorite local plays that I get the privilege of seeing. She does the new writers’ evening that Theatre Adhoc runs and there’s been some brilliant scripts.
“So I was really excited when I was asked to do this play. You get elements of comedy, seriousness, touching on some important themes and also some incredible twists and turns that you won’t see coming and you can only experience it by coming to see this play.”
‘Veneer of a middle-class family’
Julia Lewis wrote the play and told me: “This is the first full-length drama that Adhoc have done of mine, a slight departure from the usual rip-roaring comedies. The script is about the kind of veneer of a middle-class family living in the suburbs and it’s about the tensions within the relationship but also the lies that people tell and how they justify the lies that they tell and that’s why it’s called The Greater Good. It’s that whole concept of scapegoating.”
I asked her what it was like seeing her script being brought to life in the rehearsals.
She said: “As a playwright, you hand it onto the actors and they bring another level, and the director brings another level again. You become amazed very often by the way an actor does something and you go ‘oh, I didn’t think of that, that’s really good’.
“It’s great to see it brought to life and worked through. Everybody is rising to the challenge brilliantly. It’s going well.”
‘Challenge’
Andrew Pippen, from Theatre Adhoc, started his career on stage with the Congress Youth Theatre around 30 years ago.
He said he wanted to “challenge” Julia Lewis, the playwright, and the Company to write a “serious play.”
“I think it was about a year ago, it was the summer, I said to Julia, ‘we need to do something for April next year and so far you’re throwing out comedies that are really successful, everyone loves them.
“She’s just done a Welsh trilogy where we did ‘Whose Coat Is That Jacket?’, followed by ‘Now in a Minute’ and then ‘Twp and Tamping’. They worked really well.
“I said to her, ‘this is brilliant, but surely now we need to do a challenge, you need to challenge yourself, we need to challenge the company so why don’t you write a drama, a serious play? So that’s what she did. Julia has this ability to go home and generate something within about three months, which is insane, but still she can.
“This [The Greater Good] is a nice one because it’s securely in Cwmbran, because it’s a bit of an experiment.”
The play is directed by Jonathan Willis.
The curtain goes up on ‘The Greater Good’ on Monday 28 April at 7pm at the Congress Theatre in Cwmbran.
Buy tickets for ‘The Greater Good’
Visit the Congress Theatre website to buy tickets.