Iphigenia In Splott, a searing one-woman play starring Swansea actress Sophie Melville, was a deserved theatrical smash back in 2015. Adapting the Greek myth of Iphigenia and directed by Rachel O’Riordan, it opened in Cardiff’s Sherman Theatre and went on to enjoy a London run at the Lyric Hammersmith. In 2024 a Welsh-language version – Iphigenia Yn Sblot, directed by Alice Eklund and starring Seren Hamilton – played at the Sherman and the National Eisteddfod.
A further reimagination, Effi O Blaenau, alters its setting and expands its boundaries – from Splott, a socially deprived district of Cardiff, to the slate-grey north Wales landscape of Blaenau Ffestiniog. Translating the play from stage to screen are director Marc Evans, who recently helmed Mr Burton and TV series Steeltown Murders, and its original writer, Gary Owen.
With Leisa Gwenllian in the title role, Iphigenia’s monologue format has been jettisoned here. We see Effi struggle against deprivation: a product of years of austerity and COVID-addled poverty, she’s out for a good time but is heading towards tragedy. Would-be boyfriend Kev, played by an endearing Owen Alun, hopes to win her but Effi’s head is swayed by Lee (Tom Rhys Harries) with gripping and heartbreaking consequences.
What follows is a Ken Loach-esque slice of social realism in Cymraeg, with cast and creatives alike on blistering form. A highlight of the Glasgow Film Festival last month, Effi O Blaenau will get a UK-wide release in June alongside another hotly anticipated Welsh feature – Madfabulous, a period drama starring Callum Scott Howells as flamboyant aristocrat Henry Paget.
Iphigenia In Splott has had quite the decade-long journey. An urgent tale made even more prescient in the current social climate, this will be a film to celebrate. The Welsh are on the way to the multiplex…
Effi O Blaenau opens in the UK on Fri 19 June.
Info: here
words KEIRON SELF
