Dragons take flight across Wales this summer

This Summer, dragons of all shapes and sizes will be appearing across Wales as award-winning Taking Flight Theatre take an exceptional story on tour.

Mae Gen Ti Ddreigiau/You’ve Got Dragons is an inclusive and accessible take on Kathryn Cave and Nick Maland’s book adapted for the stage by Yoto Carnegie Medal award-winner Manon Steffan Ros (Llyfr Glas Nebo), based on the children’s book of the same name.

Humorous

Billed as a delightful tale for young children, their families and carers, it is a humorous and touching exploration of the dragons we all face, featuring creative captioning, British Sign Language, and audio description.

Coupled with this the company offer dragons taming workshops offering practical suggestions to help families work together to ‘tame their dragons’ and to help everyone to start talking about mental health in the same way as physical health.

Vocabulary

Director Elise Davison said: “I’d adapted one of Kathryn’s books before and after we first met, she sent me You’ve Got Dragons as a suggestion to put on the stage.

“The book completely hit home with me and it felt like the perfect story for Taking Flight to take on. Suffering from poor mental health throughout my life and having a child with anxiety, some of the scenes in the play really resonate.

“For me it was about providing a vocabulary for parents and teachers to talk to children about mental health in a way that wasn’t scary and wasn’t taboo.

“I was very conscious that this play wasn’t going to change the world but it might just start some conversations that needed to happen.”

Lightness

Executive Director Louise Ralph said: “Parents are impressed that we are able to tackle the issues around childhood mental health with such a lightness of touch.

“It was really heart-warming to see how much entire families enjoyed the previous incarnation of the show; so having the opportunity to work with a writer who is as respected and loved as Manon Steffan Ros to create brand new versions of the show in both Welsh and BSL AND English and BSL has been so very exciting.”

The cast members for Mae Gen Ti Ddreigiau/You’ve Got Dragons are: Alex Nowak, Amy Helena, Catrin Mai Edwards, Eben James and Grace O’Brien, they are joined on stage by creative enabler Gethin Roberts.

22 & 25-27 June Pontio, Bangor

2-5 July Blaengarw Workmen’s Hall

9-13 July Ffwrnes, Llanelli

16-20 July Chapter, Cardiff

24-27 July Riverfront, Newport

7 August Eisteddfod Genedlaethol

The show is suitable for young children, schools and families, and is fully accessible to Deaf, hard of hearing, blind or partially sighted people.

Full details can be found here.