London 2012 blog

When the Olympic Flag is handed over to London in August amidst great media excitement the pressure is also on in a small town over looking the Cardigan Bay. For here stands Harlech Castle - the most formidable fortress in Wales whose battlements spring out of a near-vertical cliff-face. Like an all seeing sentinel, it gazes out across the land and sea, keeping a watchful eye over Snowdonia. It stands on the site of the most important mythic saga of the Welsh culture - The Mabinogion. The tales of magic and heroes and giants and betrayal are told to every child across the land and continue to be told and retold throughout their schooling.

The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the commitment to a four year UK-wide cultural programme -  the Cultural Olympiad - has been an incentive to re-examine The Mabinogion in a new and challenging way and will involve young people, local people and artists from across North Wales. Led by Theatr Harlech - who are committed to ensuring that everyone within sight of the castle will sing or dance, or paint or build – they will be presenting a 'happening' that will have a lasting impact on how The Mabinogion is perceived as well as introducing thousands of visitors to this dynamic story.

Imagine a medieval funfair - where elements of the story are enacted- through sound installation, through carnival or puppetry or animation or instrumentation. Imagine the castle becoming alive with 400 young people in turrets, in the moat, on the escarpment, amongst the ruins presenting tales as tiny bite size images. Imagine a phantasmagoria of these images - a patchwork of different tales and an audience making a journey through the castle and the saga.

As part of Open Weekend, on 27-28 September, the first creation - a 10 metre rod puppet - will be constructed at the theatre and then paraded around the castle. The artists will be sent out into schools and community groups. First will go the storytellers to prepare the ground, followed by composers and choreographers and sound and pyrotechnic and projection technicians, then will come the puppeteers and carnival artists and after 10 months they all move into the castle and tell their tales in a way that they have never been told before.