Wildlife

Diary of a Madman Published  Tuesday 28 May 2013  at  10:46  by  Susie Wild Based on a short story by Nikolai Gogol, Robert Bowman’s one-man show charts the unravelling of 40-something civil servant Poprishchin in 1830s Russia. Sharpening pencils for His Excellency, he is schoolboy impish when describing the beautiful object of his affection: “Her dress was white like a swan, and when she looked at me it was like the sun shining - I swear it.” Robert Bowman in Diary of a Madman Photo: Katy Stephenson First performed in Chapter in 2011 as a development piece funded by the Arts Council of Wales, Diary of a Madman was created using the Michael Chekhov Technique and sees Poprishchin move down a scale of emotions from naively quixotic through a spat of psychosis giggles - can dogs write? Could this handwriting be described as ‘doggy’? Could he be the next King of Spain? - to a dark and surreal place. Illness meant that Bowman was croaky and performing u...

'Boxes lined the lounge and the hall and built a cardboard city across the spare bed. It wasn’t as if she wanted them there, not really, but she didn’t know what else to do.'  I've a brand new story, 'No Laughter After Midnight' in the new Lampeter Review: http://issuu.com/lampeter-review/docs/7_issue

Had a wonderful time at The Bloody Ballad in Newport on Saturday. You can read my review over on The Stage website, here's an extract: The Bloody Ballad featuring Mary and the Missing Fingers Published  Monday 25 March 2013  at  10:57  by  Susie Wild The Bloody Ballad is a gloriously grotesque rockabilly riot of a night out based on Mary Maid of the Mill, an old Welsh Romany folk tale by Abram Wood about a girl who gets betrayed by her lover and then goes on a revenge killing spree. Using live music theatre, Gagglebabble (Lucy Rivers and Hannah McPake) have created a unique, playful, immersive work in which the wrong-side-of-the-tracks Mary - “a girl with a dark past who’s had one hell of a week” - shares her gory story through words and song and invites you to sing along. [...] Read the review in full on The Stage website The show is touring until the end of August (Edinburgh stint) and Gagglebabble are back with a new show in the Autumn too. ...

Abbie Wightwick, WalesOnline Mar 16 2013 What’s will we be reading this year? Abbie Wightwick asks industry insiders to look to the future and predict the trends for 2013 (With my Parthian hat on, I predict your reading in this feature as part of the Western Mail's Books Special) Read more: Wales Online http://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz-and-lifestyle/books-in-wales/2013/03/16/women-writers-head-welsh-book-lists-for-2013-91466-32989996/

Two editors will be joining the Parthian editorial team in the new financial year. Editor and writer  Susie Wild  has extended her role to general editor with Parthian and is currently working on a list which includes sparkling new fiction debuts by  Craig Hawes ,  Dan Tyte  and  Carly Holmes . She is also the editor of an innovative range of memoirs which starts Dorothy Al Khafaji’s  Between Two Rivers , an honest, funny and moving story of Baghdad life from the perspective of a young woman from England, transplanted into another culture by love and family, and then in 2014 by Michael Oliver’s innovative  Sunbathing in Siberia: A Marriage of East and West in Post Soviet Russia .  Read the article in full on the Parthian website. Also see interview with me in The Bookseller on 8th March.

Hello Folks, I know I've been a bit quiet on the blog front lately, that is because I've taken a bit of a break from performing to spend time on writing and various efforts in self improvement. So here is a quick update for you... I got myself a new motto... Other new things: 1. New hair. I got bangs. I like them. 2. New job. I've been appointed as Editor at Parthian Books. I am super pleased about this and looking forward to working with our authors on splendid lists in 2013 and 2014. 3. Mr Man got a lot of brownie points this week. Not only did he take me out for champagne on hearing that I got the job, he also sent me flowers. He's a keeper. Which is a good job because... 4. We've signed up for another year on our house. 5. In my bid to learn something new every month... I started yoga in January, and begin crochet next week. My plans to learn to bake have been delayed slightly, but I get to do my OMB class in March and have been...

I ♥ Swansea. You should too. I wrote a little Top 5 music venues snippet  for @visitwales ... " There’s stacks to see and do in Swansea. And it’s no surprise that lots of local people are busy writing stuff about them: places to eat and drink, spots for shopping, sights and sounds and more. So we put this page together to showcase the best. It’s a guide written by people who love where they live. We hope you find it as inspiring as we do…" http://www.visitwales.co.uk/short-breaks/city-breaks/swansea/

The rest of those The Stage panto reviews... Sleeping Beauty Published Friday 14 December 2012 at 10:58 by Susie Wild "As usual the New Theatre bang out the bling and special effects in their big budget, long-running pantomime. This season’s festive fairytale Sleeping Beauty is packed full of fireworks, twinkle-twinkle starry nights, flying bicycles, tarzan-rope swinging, curtain-clinging, Batman and Robin and four can-canning penguins." Babes in the Wood Published Friday 14 December 2012 at 11:02 by Susie Wild "Babes in the Wood meets Robin Hood in this traditional, touring Owen Money panto vehicle. Based on an old English ballad, the story sees the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham plot to have his niece Samantha and nephew Simon killed, resulting in the two children being abandoned deep within Sherwood Forest where the Big Bad Wolf lives. But all is not doom and gloom as slapstick comedy, bad Christmas cracker jokes, considered costumes and strong songs ...

Peter Pan Published  Thursday 6 December 2012  at  14:51  by  Susie Wild Sherman’s modernised story focuses on the experience of Wendy, a teenage girl growing up painfully fast. Rebecca Newham makes a confident stage debut complimented by a well-voiced cast and original songs with a Disney film feel. A scene from Peter Pan at the Sherman Cymru, Cardiff Photo: Farrows Creative Taunted by her brothers for owning her first bra, Wendy is left alone on Christmas Eve while her dad sneaks off to the pub. Feeling old enough to begin to understand the bigger questions in life but given none of the answers at home, she is whisked away to Neverland by mischeivous charmer Peter Pan (Joshua Considine). There she shifts identity from sweet mother homemaker for Adam Ant and the Lost Boys in part one, to rock chick pirate Black Heart, fighting out her teenage angst as the Captain’s right hook woman in part two. Stereotypes are subverted to good effect at the s...

I am going to seven pantomimes and festive shows for The Stage this year. Here is my review of Pantomime Number One Aladdin Published  Monday 3 December 2012  at  11:37  by  Susie Wild Aberdare’s Aladdin combines Eastern magic, mummies and genies with plenty of rub-a-dub-dub. Last year’s ugly sister Frank Vickers once again dames up wonderfully as Widow Twankey, with more costume changes than the Oscars - highlights including a camel and ingenious variations on rotary washing lines thanks to the BA (Hons) costume staff and students from Coleg Morgannwg. Also trying to have a rub, but this time of the magic lamp, not the royal laundry, is Baker Boys’ Richard Corgan, making his evil panto debut by playing Abanazar as a Shakespearean villain - cue lots of silly jokes based on mispronouncing his name - ‘Av a banana’, ‘Abergavenny’ and so on. Lower budget than the big city pantos, this production’s sets are less flashy, but a stronger adaptation of th...

Cardiff Literary Salon Returns on 11th December 2012 Sherman Cymru have got their alphabet blocks out in anticipation... Sherman Cymru plays host to the Cardiff Literary Salon Tuesday 11 December  - 7.30pm Special Guest:  Carrie Etter American expat Carrie Etter has published two collections, The Tethers (winner, London New Poetry Award; Seren, 2009) and Divining for Starters (Shearsman, 2011), and edited Infinite Difference: Other Poetries by UK Women Poets (Shearsman, 2010). Her poems have recently appeared in New Welsh Review, Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, and The Rialto, among other journals.  For more information on the event visit the Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/269864903116866/ You should also join the Facebook Group for Cardiff Literary Salon: https://www.facebook.com/groups/199181613515199/

A Welsh reality TV car crash Susie Wild says an emotional void has taken Wales out of the Valleys November 8th, 2012 Share on linkedin More Sharing Services 3 All would be well if, if, if Cry the green bells of Cardiff Why so worried, sisters, why Sang the silver bells of Wye And what will you give me Say the sad bells of Rhymney From  The Bells of Rhymney  by Idris Davies By now you have probably seen or heard about MTV’s latest Reality TV show  The Valleys . Filmed in Wales, it is a spin off from  Geordie Shore , MTV UK’s commercial hit show which was based in Newcastle. Following a similar format MTV producers chose volatile wannabe halfwits trying to make it in ‘the industry’, this time plucking nine young people from the ‘obscurity’ of the south Wales valleys and placing them in a share house in the bright lights of Cardiff. Although the show is unscripted, unlike  TOWIE  and  Made in Chelsea , it still sets up scenarios and...

Thursday 1 November 2012, 15:44 Laura Chamberlain 56 Share Facebook Twitter COMMENTS Tagged with: arts and culture ,  festivals ,  music ,  literature Organisers of the inaugural Do Not Go Gentle festival, which takes place in Swansea this weekend, have kept one of the city's most famous sons firmly in mind during its planning. The new festival celebrates the life and work of Dylan Thomas. As the website says, it aims "to be a festival Dylan might have liked, and yes that involves beer, but it also involves cosy and atmospheric venues, great acts and the lovely people of Swansea who first inspired him to write all those years ago." Writers involved in the weekend include the inaugural winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize, Rachel Trezise; poet Rhian Edwards, who was the winner of the 2012 John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry; writer and co-organiser of the recent  xx minifest of women's writing , Susie Wild; plus comic poet and perform...

BLOG  Gwen Davies NWR Issue 97 xx Minifestest of Women's Writing "Had a good time on Saturday at this new festival for the writing of women from Wales and beyond. It was excellently organised (despite a concurrent beer festival at Chapter) and publicised by the team of Penny Thomas, Carole Burns, Amy Wack and Susie Wild. The audiences were large and the evening 'Salon', featuring the short story with Roshi Fernando and Rachel Trezise, sold out. The main delight for me was chatting in the bookfair section to Roshi about balancing international gigs publicising Bloomsbury's edition of her integrated short fiction collection,  Homesick ,  Read about it in NWR's Online Interview, Roshi Fernando , with developing her debut novel,  The Elephant's Wife , an excerpt from which appeared last year in  NWR 92, The Elephant's Wife Extract . " Read the blog in full:  http://www.newwelshreview.com/article.php?id=380

Women's writing celebrated at the xx minifest Friday 26 October 2012, 12:04 Laura Chamberlain Share Facebook Twitter COMMENTS Tagged with: arts and culture ,  writing ,  poetry Writing by and for women will be celebrated this weekend as the xx minifest of women’s writing 2012 takes place in Cardiff. This inaugural festival will take residence at Chapter Arts Centre this Saturday, 27 October. It aims to publicise the range and diversity of writing by women from Wales in the English language, and encourages both men and women to attend and take part. This one day minifest will act as a "taster session", as a more extensive literary programme is already being planned for 2013. I put a few questions about the festival to Susie Wild, one of the co-organisers of the xx minifest. Wild is a writer, an editor at Parthian Books and she also organises the  Cardiff Literary Salon , and will be holding a special edition of the literary gatheri...

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Published  Wednesday 24 October 2012  at  11:14  by  Susie Wild http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/37614/a-midsummer-nights-dream Shakespeare’s classic fairytale forest farce is transposed to the home front during the Second World War. Air raid sirens sound as we join the cast in watching a charming silent railway rescue film - Help! Help! - and then the real action begins. Mappa Mundi and Theatr Mwldan have been creating and touring accessible new co-productions annually since 2006. Together with guest director Peter Doran of The Torch Theatre, Milford Haven, they have conjured a moonlit multimedia show of shadowy uncertainty where dreams play within dreams and even night is confused. Most of the 13-strong cast are Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama alumni including a sweetly stubborn landgirl Hermia (Lisa Zahra), a haughty, snivelling Helena (Joanna Simpkins) and an American GI Lysander (newcomer Jack Brown)...

I guest edited The Western Mail's women's supplement WM today, which included contributing a column and an xx feature... Already snuggling up with a good book as the nights draw in – why not go out and see some of your favourite writers reading their work live this weekend? xx minifest is a celebration of women’s writing taking place at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff on Saturday, featuring readings, performances, book stalls and bookish discussion. WM caught up with three of the writers taking part... Read More  http://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz-and-lifestyle/showbiz/2012/10/23/an-all-women-s-writing-workshop-for-south-wales-the-writers-tell-us-what-to-expect-from-xx-minifest-91466-32081370/#ixzz2A80vtUoH

Gaza/Blaenannerch Published  Tuesday 23 October 2012  at  12:19  by  Susie Wild http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/37613/gaza-blaenannerch Gaza/Blaenannerch reveals Ladd’s personal reflections on the parallels between the disruption of nationhood and the disappearance of identity in the similarly sized countries of Wales and what used to be Palestine, and the ensuing dispersal of their people, scattering them well beyond their ancestral homeland. The idea for this sequence of expressive and intelligent dance pieces was sparked by the unmanned drones currently tested near the home of Ladd and the Welsh village of Blaenannerch. In front of a screen that moves from slate to blood red, Eddie switches continents and moods, from the contemplative, the impish and playful to the tortured, the lost, the flailing as she uses her body as both storyteller and teaching aid. She wriggles and writhes, she clambers and climbs, occasionally throwing in fac...

Grimm Tales Published  Wednesday 17 October 2012  at  14:40  by  Susie Wild Everyone knows that Grimm’s fairy tales are the best fairy tales, and as this year marks the bicentennial of their publication they are undergoing a resurgence of popularity assisted by Philip Pullman, who has recently released his Penguin Classic retellings of 50 of his favourite dark Brothers Grimm stories. For Grimm Tales production company Theatr Iolo has brought three of the better known folk tales - Hansel & Gretel, Ashputtel (the original Cinderella story) and Snow White - back into their original realm of oral heritage; staging them with Iolo’s usual blend of charm, verve, and playful humour. Erini Gregoriades’ set - a puzzle of wooden doors and picture frames - enabled the cast to conjure the scary shadowy forests for Hansel and Gretel to get lost in, and Snow White to escape to, and Jem Treays’ enchanting movement design created energetic dances and hilarious, swee...