On Saturday 23rd May we headed to the wild west of Wales, or Milford Haven if you prefer, to see Vision Arts' final performance of Carpe Julgum at the Boulevard Theatre.
The unassuming building is just up from the marina in the very pretty town of Milford Haven, we've seen a few Pratchett productions here in the past but most of the productions have been in the winter and it's been too dark to see the surrounding area. This time being in May it was clear and bright.
As previously noted we've seen a few productions here and this time for the first time the seats were arranged theatre style rather than the normal cabaret style. While this meant that the production could attract a bigger audience it did make the room feel very packed.
Night Watch is quite an ambitious play to take on, not least because it needs a large cast. There are two of many of the characters, the ones from now and their younger self from the past.
The play starts with a simple grave for John Keel and Sam Vimes (Gethin Morris) paying his respect to those who fell at Treacle Mine Road all those years ago. Gethin (who we have seen play Vimes before) comes across as a good impersonator of Jon Snow from Game of Thrones. The deep yorkshire accent actually works quite well. The grave features a small hard boiled egg that had been placed there by Rosey Palm, a poignant point, whose reason becomes clear later in the play. We get introduced to several members of the Night Watch but the most jarring is Reg Shoe (Ethan Clancey) who comes across as a brain eating zombie from a Romero movie rather than the normal Discworld style Zombies. I wonder if that was to make a point that he was undead rather than to be taken seriously!
At various points during the production time is stopped and Izzy Stephenson as Lu-Tze, The Sweeper breaks the forth wall to give us footnotes or exposition that isn't easy through the characters.
While Sam Vimes is in a meeting with Lord Vetinari (Adam Edgerly - growing into the role but still a little young to have the required gravitas) he is informed that Carcer (Aaron Evans) has been cornered on the roof of the UU Library having just killed one of Vimes' men.
Vimes rushes to the roof to capture Carcer because he knows Carcer won't fight fair and he doesn't want another injured or dead officer to have to deal with. Aaron Evans did a great job as a slightly psychotic version of Carcer. The constant insane giggle and the need to occasionally kiss things only added to the madness. The two battle on the roof and a lightning strike throws them back in time to when Sam Vimes was a new constable at the Watch.
Sam finds out that his old mentor John Keel had the misfortune of coming across Carcer and was killed. John Keel was the reason Sam became a good copper rather than a corrupt one. So Sam takes on the role of John Keel and ends up mentoring his younger self.
Things are unstable during this time and there is talk of revolutions. The current patrician has a special police force that does unthinkable things to anyone caught out after curfew. The head of the untouchables is Captain Swing played by Kat Steed. Kat does a sterling job of slightly mistiming things and introducing a very physical tick when least expected.
Doctor Lawn (Mills Ross) is very good at keeping people patched up and is impressed with Sam's ability to disarm people with little long term effects. The ensemble cast were for the most part all very good. There were some problems, with some of the dialog being a little quiet / muffled and hard to comprehend. Which is a shame when they had important dialog to pass on. If you were new to Pratchett you might struggle to follow along.
Also with such a huge cast there were a lot of the same actors playing multiple roles which could make things a little hard to follow.
I particularly liked Sophia Williams' portrayal of a young Nobby Nobbs.
The play moves along at a blistering pace. The scene changes were swift and there was very little downtime between them. During the intermission, while the audience were being entertained by members of the cast, giving out flyers about Snapcase and Winder, and asking if we would vote in Snapcase when the time came, a very impressive barricade was built behind the curtains - lots of credit to the set designers and builders. It truly looked like a barricade built of furniture, when it was in fact all bolted onto four boxes.
The second half ran quicker than the first and it was a joy to see the story unfold.
Behind the scenes - sound effects were good and appropriate, and lighting was used effectively, overall it was a very entertaining play and the team that put it together deserve a lot of credit for coping with such a complex play.
If another Pratchett play comes around in the future, I'll be there with bells on! Great fun.