GRUFF RHYS & SWEET BABOO AMONG CAST OF NATIONAL THEATRE WALES’ 2015 CHRISTMAS SHOW

FULL CAST OF ACTOR/MUSICIANS CONFIRMED FOR
THE INSATIABLE, INFLATABLE CANDYLION, A THEATRE GIG FOR AUDIENCES OF ALL AGES, PERFORMED AT CARDIFF’S SWALEC STADIUM DEC 2015-JAN 2016

A festive treat from the creative minds behind the genre-bending Praxis Makes Perfect: this December, Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys, writer Tim Price and director Wils Wilson will team up to create National Theatre Wales’ The Insatiable, Inflatable Candylion, a festive theatre gig in Cardiff for audiences of all ages, inspired by Gruff’s seminal album Candylion.

A cast of actor/musicians including Sweet Baboo, Remy Beasley, Lisa Jên Brown, Matthew Bulgo, Dyfan Dwyfor, Natasha Lewis, Dyfrig Morris, Gruff Rhys himself, Kliph Scurlock and Emma Daman Thomas will perform a mix of new songs and old favourites, all written by Gruff, in an immersive production that blurs the line between a theatre show and live music gig.

Audiences aged from four to 104 will be invited to meet a host of characters including Caruin, Cheffyl, Meringutan, Sledgehog, Pale Droid and all the inhabitants of Pixel Valley, where there’s a whiff of revolution in the air…

Gruff Rhys is known around the world for his work as a solo artist as well as singer and songwriter with Super Furry Animals and Neon Neon, and for his collaborations with Gorillaz, Mogwai, Dangermouse and Sparklehorse amongst others. The latest album by Neon Neon, Praxis Makes Perfect, based on the life of radical Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, was performed as an immersive gig, produced by National Theatre Wales. In 2014, Gruff released his groundbreaking multimedia project American Interior – book, app, film, album. American Interior is published by Penguin and was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2014 and shortlisted for The Gordon Burn Prize 2014.

Tim Price’s theatre credits include: Teh Internet is Serious Business at the Royal Court, Protest Song at the National Theatre, I'm With the Band (Traverse theatre/Wales Millennium Centre tour), Praxis Makes Perfect (National Theatre Wales/Barbican tour), The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning (National Theatre Wales tour), Salt, Root and Roe (Donmar Warehouse), Demos (Traverse Theatre) and For Once (Pentabus Theatre/Hampstead theatre tour). His television credits include: Switch, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Sold! (ITV) The Smoke (Sky) Eastenders, Holby City, Casualty, Doctors (BBC) Y Pris and Caerdydd (S4C).

Wils Wilson is a theatre maker and director who has created performances in an abandoned house, on a ferry, in a department store at night, in pubs, in and on cars and even sometimes in theatres. Her audiences have been invited to eat, dance, walk, sing, drink tea and do the conga – amongst other things. Previously for NTW she directed Praxis Makes Perfect (Best Director, Welsh Theatre Awards). For National Theatre of Scotland: HOME Shetland, Gobbo (winners of CATS Awards), The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart (which also won a Herald Angel), and Ignition. Her other recent work includes Scuttlers (Manchester Royal Exchange), ANON (Welsh National Opera), Gastronauts (Royal Court) and Manchester Lines (Manchester Library Theatre). Until 2007 Wils was co-Artistic Director of wilson+wilson, making site-specific work across the UK, where her work included HOUSE, Mapping the Edge, News from the Seventh Floor and Mulgrave.

Full listings information:

THE INSATIABLE, INFLATABLE CANDYLION

Music & lyrics: Gruff Rhys

Writer: Tim Price

Director: Wils Wilson

Conceived by Gruff Rhys, Wils Wilson and Tim Price from an original idea by Gruff Rhys, Pete Fowler and Mark James

Designer: Laura Hopkins
Lighting Designer: Natasha Chivers
Sound Designer: Mike Beer
Movement Director: Ben Wright

Cast: Sweet Baboo, Remy Beasley, Lisa Jên Brown, Matthew Bulgo, Dyfan Dwyfor, Natasha Lewis, Dyfrig Morris, Gruff Rhys, Kliph Scurlock & Emma Daman Thomas

Dates: 16 December 2015 – 2 January 2016

Venue: SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff, CF11 9XR

Performance Schedule

16.12.2015	7pm
17.12.2015	7pm
18.12.2015	9pm
19.12.2015	2pm & 7pm
21.12.2015	2pm & 7pm
22.12.2015	2pm (Audio Description)
23.12.2015	2pm & 7pm
24.12.2015	2pm
26.12.2015	5pm
28.12.2015	2pm
29.12.2015	2pm \| 7pm
30.12.2015	2pm (Relaxed Performance)
31.12.2015	2pm
01.01.2016	9pm
02.01.2016	2pm & 7pm