Huw Fyw Review – Take an emotional journey around a veteran’s living room | stage

THis play, written by Tudor Owen, tells the story of a World War II veteran, a windfall, a clogged toilet, and the journey of an entire Welsh village to London in 1994. It has the air of a tale that veers into more torturous terrain. PTSD, generational trauma, social exclusion, and the irreconcilable weight of grief are never far from the surface.

One of Wales’ most famous comedians and broadcasters, Owen also plays the role that bears his name (the play’s title translates to Huw Alive). The strangeness of the Welsh-language production is partly due to the expectation that perhaps there will always be a sarcastic punchline to smear Hugh’s unamused face. But these rarely come, and instead it is a play told with absolute, unapologetic honesty, its heart shamelessly worn on its sleeve.

At times, the plot veers into the convoluted (listen to Chekhov’s radio broadcast), but it is coherently and deftly directed by Stefan Donnelly. The final emotional decisions are not necessarily the ones we expected. Most of it is set in Huw’s dingy living room – designed by Elin Steele and lighting by Elanor Higgins – and it all looks reasonably compact and very convincing. There is simplicity, perhaps even naivety, to the drama. Generous sentiment is presented as an effective and poignant survival strategy that can help stave off the horrors, which are only revealed too late.

Its sentimentality resists the risk of turning into crudeness due to four very impressive performances. Along with Owen, Leah Jaffe narrates and sets up the action, Owen Allon plays two quietly devastating roles, and one of my favorite moments (as it was when Theatr Cymru’s show toured for the first time in 2025) is when David Emmer, with one wide, silly smile, goes from being a pensioner in a clerical collar to a giddy teenager.

Adding to the strangeness, one is struck by a strange double nostalgia as the play returns to the 1990s, which perhaps seems just as far away now as the 1940s did then.