The Wizard, the Goat and the Man Who Won the War

A tale of one man, or a tale of three?

A one off and premiere performance at the Dylan Thomas Festival

Writer/ Director: DJ Britton

Featuring: Richard Elfyn

 David Lloyd George was a man of great talents and great flaws, and in leading a very public life the press named him accordingly.

As the ‘Welsh Wizard’ for his oratory skills, the peoples champion – introducing pensions, national insurance and courage to take the country through its darkest hours in WW1.

‘The Goat’ for all his chapel upbringing he was a compulsive flirt and womanizer, having a long term mistress (later his second wife).

‘The Man Who won the War’: as named in 1918 in the tabloid press.

He started life as a lower class, chapel going Welsh boy from Criccieth who became Chancellor, Minister of War and later the Prime Minister. A champion of the Welsh and British cause, Lloyd George is one of the most documented men in history: from his own forays as a journalist, traveller, his autobiography, the press coverage of his life whilst alive, the countless accounts written of him by friends, family and historians and the numerous performances about him. All this information is a gift for a writer as, more often than not, research on a subject is scarce and here the writer David Britton – in his own words - takes the opportunity to pick “what’s interesting dramatically in his life”, using fact to inform an intricately woven fiction.

A one man play, it opens with Lloyd George sat on a bench in the French resort of Antibes covered in a Union Flag towel.  For the next hour we keep Lloyd George company during his waiting game for the young ‘Chanel girl’ Juliette even though it is supposed to be his 50^th wedding anniversary with Margaret. He talks about events and people in his life; his daughter Mair who died at 17, Frances his mistress and growing up as a child in Criccieth. It soon becomes evident that his life is one large juggling act: between his wife and mistress; his Welsh identity and British image and his role as the people’s protector with his ever increasing wealth. The French cloth makers have made him the Union towel but “oh for a draig goch” (Welsh dragon) he cries at one point. The play is a mix of three languages with the English speech broken up by flashes of Welsh and French and whilst many in the audience may not understand the French or Welsh it adds to the atmosphere and the depth of the character before us. He also breaks into song, Myfanwy being one: singing is a huge part of Welsh culture, more so then with the prevalence of Christian hymns one of his speeches in Wales during the war centres around singing, asking why should we not sing? I’d pick a link on you tube for Myfanwy but there are a lot of them and some are pretty awful - unfortunately I don’t have the technology to extract my decent recording from its vinyl record.  One theme running through the play is the legend of King Arthur and his Knights – he talks to his Uncle Lloyd as a child about the legends, to his daughter Mair about believing in the legends and compares his political partnership with Churchill to King Arthur and Lancelot – Lloyd George as Arthur and Churchill as Lancelot.

Richard Elfyn had the difficult task of holding the performance together without the support of fellow cast members and the end result is brilliant: for a one off premiere performance it was carried off with fantastic flair and if any words or lines were missed out, I couldn’t tell you. Lloyd George as a character animates Margaret, Frances and Mair: Richard pulls it off effortlessly – changing voices for each character. In all humorousness he continued the animation in the question and answer session after, imitating David (who is Australian) rather well.  His costume was fantastic – almost the image of the man he is portraying, down to the cream suit, pocket watch and slightly long hair.



David Lloyd George 1863-1945



I was utterly sympathetic to the play only being an hour long, firstly for Richard Elfyn’s sake coping with all those lines and that single character productions carry the danger of floundering on the rocks of dramatic tension and momentum. Yet this play, with its carefully crafted devices and props works well. Giving Lloyd George a past and a present allows tension to shift and create drama: moving between his memories and the expectations he carries for the present/future. Winston Churchill and his aides are also at Antibes: Lloyd George is unable to decide who he should approach should Churchill’s men come by or go to his latest ‘flirt’ Juliette when she appears and the knowledge that Margaret expects him back or may even appear at any point. It ends with neither; he is the butt of a joke between Juliette and friends and is ignored by Churchill’s men so returns to the hotel and to Margaret.

I love going to the Dylan Thomas Centre for events and the yearly Dylan Thomas Festival – this is the third year running I have attended at least one event and The Wizard, the Goat and the Man Who Won the War was a closing event for the festival. It is a brilliant place with a staff always willing to help and it would be a disappointment to see anything happen to it – if the rumours DJ Britton mentioned about it going or anything like that are true - even if I always complain there’s no room to move in the theatre’s seats, which there isn’t but I’d rather suffer a discomfort than see a vital piece of the Swansea arts scene disappear.  It has always been an opportunity to catch up with people I no longer see on a daily basis; lecturer’s and friends from the Swansea MA in Creative Writing – often it results in fresh writing tips, welcome encouragement and interesting titbits of information on new reading material.  Talking to David after I explained I was now a young critic and he revealed that being a premiere performance there were no ‘professional’ critics - simply not to put Richard off and also they are unsure as to what is the official next step. For that I am glad I didn’t catch him before hand, even if I am still only finding my feet.

Listening to David and Richard discuss the play after was interesting, as they revealed the organic process by which the play developed – David writing a few pages at a time, Richard reading them and David writing the next few depending on how Richard read each piece. Also that finding out about Lloyd George in Antibes had been a dramatic gift to good to turn down. They spoke about staying away from the ‘historical overview’ that piece’s like this can become and create “our Lloyd George” a fictional creation of their own based on the facts – after all Juliette is an invention.  The piece was excellent and I wish David and Richard all the best in taking it on tour next year, and would see it again just to find out what tweaks or sweeping changes they decide to make. I think that whatever they decide will only make it better.