The impact of a Banksy mural painted on the side of a garage in Port Talbot, south Wales, will be explored in a new play at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff next month (Port Talbot Gotta Banksy, 2-10 May).
The Banksy mural, known as Season’s Greetings, first appeared in December 2018. In the weeks that followed, Paul Jenkins and Tracy Harris of the Theatr3 company spoke to people across the town, collecting responses to the first Banksy in Wales. Their work became what they describe as a "six-year portrait of a community and a testament to its character and resilience".
Jenkins says: “We’ve collected over 150 hours of interviews with locals; the actors will channel their voices through earphones live on stage. I don’t think the story of the impact of a Banksy on a community has ever been told like this.”
Season’s Greetings, which appears to show a child enjoying a snow shower—although the snow is in fact ash being produced from a burning dumpster—was purchased by the Essex-based dealer John Brandler for a six-figure sum. The work is a possible comment on the poor air quality in the area due to the town’s historic steelworks which shut down production last year.
Brandler loaned the Banksy work to Neath Port Talbot Council who showed it in a former shop unit in the town until early 2022. Brandler also had plans to develop an urban art centre in the town, with Season’s Greetings and another Banksy mural, Hula Hoop Girl (2020), as the centrepiece works. However, talks with local officials stalled.
“What I found sad was that I spent four months trying to get the council in Port Talbot to switch on the light bulb when I lent the town Season’s Greetings. I tried to create a street art museum in the wonderful building that was provided by [the housing provider] POBL opposite the railway station,” Brandler tells The Art Newspaper.
“I can do no more than offer five wall pieces by Banksy as well as numerous other pieces by him and other world famous street artists. It is up to the people of Port Talbot and the councillors that they vote for it,” he adds.
Writing in response to a request from comment from The Art Newspaper, a spokesperson for Neath Port Talbot Council says: “Discussions were held on the potential for Season’s Greetings to remain in Port Talbot but the council was informed it would have had to meet the costs of its removal and installation into a new venue, to continue to cover the insurance and to pay a fee in the region of £100,000 per year for the loan of the work.“ Brandler claims he was given different reasons and says that the museum he proposed would have brought significant financial benefit to the town.
Brandler has spoken to the team behind the upcoming Banksy theatre project, which he supports, and refers to as a “historic production”.
- Port Talbot Gotta Banksy, Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, 2-10 May. The play is due to tour to the Plaza, Port Talbot; Grand Theatre, Swansea; Torch Theatre, Milford Haven; and Tŷ Pawb, Wrexham
