The Gathering (Yr Helfa)
The Gathering / Yr Helfa, is a site-specific walking-performance revealing the day-to-day and seasonal workings of Hafod y Llan, a sheep farm located on the foot-hills of Snowdon. The performance will take participants on a circular journey that traces a six-kilometre route through the landscape and into the farm. As they walk they will experience installations, performance, film, poetry, music and sound as well as farming activities.
Louise Ann Wilson was invited to create a performance work for National Theatre Wales which she has evolved over the last three years through observing life at the farm and responding to the life cycles of the ewes, the flock, the farm and the landscape. Gillian Clarke, the National Poet for Wales, is writing a twelve-month sequence of poems for the performance, Nigel Stewart is working on the choreography and John Hardy, and his team, are composing the music and sound. The Gathering is supported by the team at Hafod y Llan and the National Trust and will be performed by a company that includes the shepherds, their dogs, and two hundred sheep as well as professional performers, an award-winning brass band, children from the local primary school, amongst others.
There was a great deal of media attention around the event, including coverage from BBC Wales.
