Actors' Crucible, The

Apart from its steel works, Port Talbot is celebrated for being the birthplace of three world-class actors: Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins, and Michael Sheen. Much has been written about them, and the rise of Richard Jenkins to stardom via the encouragement of his teacher Philip Burton, whose surname he took, is particularly well known. In The Actors’ Crucible, however, Angela V. John probes more deeply into just what it was in this working-class town dominated by heavy industry which produced not only the famous three but many other actors and entertainers – an appendix lists fifty other performers from the area who have had professional or semi-professional careers. As a historian born and brought up in Port Talbot, Angela John is particularly well placed to write a social history of this extraordinary burgeoning of talent. A chapter each is devoted to Burton, Hopkins and Sheen, exploring the avenues they took to a professional acting career. Crucial here is the strong tradition of amateur theatre which developed in Port Talbot after World War I, centred on the school – the ‘Sec’ – and the YMCA. Crucial too are the enablers – Philip Burton for his protégé Richard Jenkins, and Cyril Jenkins, a railway worker with a passion for the theatre who was a producer for the YMCA Players, who nurtured the talent of Anthony Hopkins. For the much younger Michael Sheen (b. 1969), it was involvement with the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre that was pivotal. A further chapter discusses briefly the early career of other Port Talbot actors, such as Rob Brydon. Burton, Hopkins and Sheen all kept ties, if sometimes ambiguous ones, with the Port Talbot area. Burton suffered most from the dilemma of those who move away from home, clinging to an image of the Pontrhydyfen of his childhood, a world that had moved on, as he had, a world that no longer existed. As Angela John observes: ‘In many ways Burton experienced in an extreme form the classic dilemma of the exile: unable to return to where he had come from but never fully fitting in anywhere else.’ He nonetheless maintained connections with the area, helping the careers of emerging talents such as Dennis Burgess. Perhaps it is Michael Sheen, though, who has been most involved locally, culminating in his role in The Passion, written by Owen Sheers and produced by National Theatre Wales with a large amateur cast, and performed outdoors at venues throughout the town. Angela John rightly devotes a chapter to this hugely successful performance. And what of the future? Amateur theatre, she says, is still a presence in Port Talbot, but it is under threat from dwindling audiences, rising costs, and cuts in public funding. Sadly, therefore, it is a question whether the town’s distinguished theatrical tradition will continue into the twenty-first century. This well-written and stimulating history makes the reader hope that, against the odds, it will. -- John Barnie @ www.gwales.com