Gwenlyn Parry

by Roger Owen

Overview

This is the first book-length study in English of Gwenlyn Parry (1932-91), the Welsh writer best known for his major stage plays, including Saer Doliau, Y Twr, and Panto, as well as his works for television and film, such as the soap opera Pobol y Cwm, the sitcom Fo a Fe, and the cult BBC TV film Grand Slam. Roger Owen takes into consideration the scope and variety of Parry’s work, which often dwells on a despairing and solitary search for meaning in existence. He reveals Parry as a writer whose theatrical vision was both facilitated and impeded by his dedication to the spoken dialect of his native Arfon and whose work mediated between the extremes in his life and work: the personal and private, absurdism and populism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780708326626
Publisher:	University of Wales Press
Publication date:	11/15/2013
Series:	University of Wales Press - Writers of Wales
Pages:	191
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Roger Owen is a lecturer in the Department of Theatre, Film, and Television Studies at Aberystwyth University, UK.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

List of illustrations

Introduction

1              ‘Llanbabo it is to us and Llanbabo it will remain’: Early Life

2              ‘God help me, I cannot escape from this’: Three Short Plays

3              ‘A kind of self-therapy’: Saer Doliau

4              ‘A revolution…where one man takes over the empire of the other’: Tŷ ar y Tywod

5              ‘A Welsh Tom and Jerry’: Fo a Fe and Y Ffin

6              ’In the middle of the seventies experience’: Pobol y Cwm and Grand Slam

7              ‘They will also argue and fight and talk about their fear of death etc.’:  Y Tŵr

8              ‘You know who’s in the balance’: Sal

9              ‘Any bloody fool can play dame’: Panto

10            ‘Everything will be fine now, you’ll see’: Later Life

Postscript

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index