Hiraeth definitely has a theatre first: I was offered a Welsh cake at the end of a play*. The star and co-creator of the play Buddug James Jones has a whole tupperware of them to hand out to the audience.
It tells the story of Buddug who comes from a five generations of Welsh farmers but, inspired by the 'Welsh Bob Dylan', gets the urge to go to London and see more of the world. Her gran tells her that some people are rocks and some are rivers and Buddug is a river.
At first she struggles against her family, friends and country (represented by a daffodil) who want her to stay but eventually she makes it to the capital where she has to resist the call of home and throw herself into an alien environment.
Max Mackintosh (co-creator with Jesse Briton) takes on all the other parts and plays guitar together with David Grubb who accompanies on violin and drum. There is the odd song and plenty of music to buoy the tale along. The audience is encouraged to sing along and occasionally participate and it is generally silly and good fun.
There are plenty of laughs although there is one scene when a boyfriend is talking about Buddug behind her back which seemed unnecessarily cruel and wasn't really my sense of humour. A few found it funny.
Hiraeth is like a little Welsh cake in London: a bite of something sweet, quirky and fun. You can catch it at the Soho Theatre until Saturday March 21 and it is and hour and five minutes long.
* has anyone been given food to eat during or after a play?
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