‘Re-imagining Llanbedrog’ was a one-woman solo show about holiday-making habits, attachment to place, and a yearning to connect with family members who are no longer within reach. Llanbedrog, a small village on the Llyn peninsula in North Wales, has been an important holiday destination for Rebecca’s family since the 1950s. Not only her parents, but also her grandparents and their parents spent almost every summer there – that is until she was born. After discovering numerous photographs in her family archive, not to mention a vast amount of kitsch picnic paraphernalia, she became curious and keen to explore the place herself.
Using 100 plastic sandcastle buckets, wireless headphones and inflatable beach toys, the piece playfully questions how site-specific performance might be combined with digital technology to generate an immersive experience of the cultural and political dynamics operating in geographically remote places.
Combining the autobiographical with the political and the local, the work asks questions about our attachment to place, objects and the importance of personal oral accounts to accompany more dominant histories.
The piece contributes to debates on the use of digital technologies and their crossover with performance to question connections between immersive experience, listening technologies and site. The work also explored modes of participation, oral history and memories of seaside towns.
Project outcomes included an audio-installation in beach hut 18 with kind permission from the National Trust and a sell-out performance at Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
‘Re-imagining Llanbedrog’ was developed with support from Aberystwyth Arts Centre Associate Artist scheme, WalesLab – a National Theatre Wales artist development initiative and received funding from the Arts Council Wales. Artist and writer, Branwen Davies worked with Rebecca as an outside eye and provided dramaturgical support and Welsh translation for the project.
Photo Credits: Craig Kirkwood. All rights reserved.