“I am past thirty and three parts iced over.” – Mathew Arnold

Three Parts Iced Over was an intergenerational dance and theatre production, conceived, choreographed, written and directed by Caroline Lamb and Wyndham Price. It had a cast of 78 professional and community dancers and actors, aged 7 to 70. 

Three Parts Iced Over was an atmospheric work at the heart of which was the birth to death journey of a twenty first century man, Rhys Williams, tragically orphaned at an early age. As his life unfolds, he becomes mysteriously entwined with ‘Victorian,’ Catherine Helstone, who lives to dance.  As the time boundaries blur, Rhys and Catherine struggled to search for meaning in an uncaring world, encountering a perverse age-obsessed throwaway time; a third millennium that casts aside anything that has lost its shine and novelty and ceased to be useful – an age that reveres neither the vigour of youth nor the wisdom of age. 

This cradle to grave story was interwoven with extracts from the writings of Charlotte Bronte, Virginia Woolf, Carl Jung and Dylan Thomas and asked what happened to the ‘long since forgotten soul of man’ in an age dominated by material greed.  Caroline Lamb’s evocative choreography, set within a framework of mythic imagery and the symbolism of fairy tales, was complemented by contemporary narrative writing from Wyndham Price. Layered on top of this rich tapestry of text and choreography was an accompanying exhibition of painting, sculpture and photography, adding a further dimension to the piece.

“It’s excellent- so simple, so complex, so wonderful. Go and see it please. The network of emotions that runs through it is marvellous. A wonderful marriage of movement and the spoken word. It was so gripping. Everyone must go and see it.”        S4C TV review of ‘Three Parts Iced Over’. 

“I was massively impressed with the amount of people involved and the sheer scale of the piece. It was incredibly spectacular. The whole team deserves credit for pulling off such an ambitious project.”   Nicholas Davies – Arts Council Wales 

“I am delighted that Legal and General had the opportunity to support such an inspirational project and I hope we will have the opportunity to work together again in the future.”   Lynne Sheehy – Legal and General

THE THREE PARTS ICED OVER ‘OUTSIDE – INSIDE’ WORKSHOPS – A Creative Discovery Of Ageing. 

‘We saw for a moment laid out among us the body of the complete human being whom we have failed to be, but at the same time, cannot forget. All that we might have been we saw; all that we had missed, and we grudged for a moment the other’s claim, as children when the cake is cut, the one cake, the only cake, watch their slice diminishing.”    Virginia Woolf – The Waves

Selected to be a part of the BBC 2005 ‘Here For You’ Workshops, Striking Attitudes took our ‘Outside- Inside’ workshops, linked to the making of Three Parts Iced Over, to Denbigh, Ruthin, Carmarthen, Aberdare and Bute Town in Cardiff. Intergenerational workshops were offered to local communities in music, drama, movement, music, poetry writing and art. The focus of the workshops was the human body and the ageing process as witnessed physiologically, sociologically and psychologically, through the seven ages of man.

In Denbigh, Dolwen Residential Care Home members took part in a Seaside workshop with young pupils from Denbigh High School. Part of the session involved listening to text from Dylan Thomas’ memories of a day at the seaside, writing words in a table full of sand and sharing seaside experiences between young and old. 

“A life-changing experience.” – Denbigh High School student 

 “Better than any tonic.” – Dolwen Resident

 FUNDING – Arts Council Wales, Legal and General, Arts and Business, The Foundation for Sports and the Arts, Communities First Trust Fund, Cardiff County Council, Cardiff’s Sherman Theatre, BBC Here For You Campaign

“Alas, Experience! No other mentor has so wasted and frozen a face as yours. – Charlotte Bronte – Shirley