Breath-taking, ethereal Welsh singing fills the Lyttleton Theatre. Tenor descants and intricate harmonies permeate the air. There’s a sense of community, identity, and yet foreboding. The stage has been set for The Corn is Green. 

The play by Emlyn Williams is told by Williams himself (Gareth David-Lloyd) in a form of storytelling that makes this one of the most interesting plays we’ve seen in a long time. Williams dictates stage directions and instructs actors on tone of voice, emotion, and intention as he crafts the world of the play before our eyes. Having the playwright tell the story himself gives the play ownership over its Welsh identity and invites the audience in to learn and understand more about what life might have been like in a rural mining village. It conjures up a self-conscious feeling that plays, and playwrights, are just trying to tell their own stories and find their own identities when they create characters and worlds. It is powerful to watch. As the play progresses, Williams’ input diminishes until, in Act Two, he becomes an onlooker, observing the play unfolding alongside us. 

The play keeps great pace, with Williams’ sense of artistic urgency driving the first Act. Richard Lynch (Mr John Goronwy Jones) and Alice Orr-Ewing (Miss Ronberry) command great presence and introduce us to the ongoing conflict between local heritage and prejudice from the ‘well-to-do’. Nicola Walker’s entrance as Miss Moffat raises the energy higher. The stichomythic back and forth between Walker’s Miss Moffat and Rufus Wright as The Squire encapsulates this ongoing battle against prejudice. Walker is a powerhouse and establishes her character’s empowerment and likability from the get-go. She commands the stage with ease and naturalistic grace. 

Each scene of Williams’ creation is bookended with effervescent singing from the chorus of miners. It underscores the story with a sense of Williams’ own past and search for identity. The songs, composed by Will Stuart, soar through the theatre, making us and other theatregoers we spoke to, emotional. Boundless credit is due to Christopher Shutt’s sound design as we could pick out both individual voices and appreciate the sound of the chorus as one. 

The previously shabby-chic aesthetic of the set in the first act is replaced with a full naturalistic cross-section of Miss Moffat’s home in Act Two. What we had previously been asked to imagine as Williams created it, appeared and it became a much more traditional telling. This set design by ULTZ is a true example of how set can tell a story and shows off the Lyttleton Theatre’s versatility. The pace of Act One is missed in Act Two with part of the storyline feeling slightly as though it is added for the sake of adding some drama. The real beauty of the play is in its truth and simple exploration of people. This makes parts of Act Two feel a little contrived to add a bit of ‘kitchen-sink’ drama to the storyline and things are wrapped up rather quickly  

The Corn is Green is one to watch. Nicola Walker, fresh from our screens in BBC’s The Split, gives a true masterclass in acting. She exists onstage in the most natural way, reacting to everything happening in the world around her. Jo McInnes and Iwan Davies also give two memorable performances, with McInnes providing reliable comic relief and Davies commanding the stage in his professional debut, establishing himself as one to watch.

You don’t want to miss this one – we’ll be thinking about it for a long time.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Eliza Harris

The Corn is Green plays at the National Theatre until 11 June, with tickets available here.