Lloyd George on the beach

There was another theatrical gem at Theatr Clwyd this evening: The wizard, the goat and the man who won the war. It was a one man show about  David Lloyd George. The setting was a beach in the south of France in 1938. The day was his 50th wedding anniversary. His wife Margaret was taking an afternoon rest, while Lloyd George sat by the Mediterranean sea reflecting on his life. Oddly enough Winston Churchill was in the same hotel.

Lloyd George lived a full and remarkable life. He was a man that evoked great loyalty and love in some, but equal hatred from others. Lloyd George's many women, but especially Francis Stephenson and her travails, were highlighted in the play.

Yet by 1938 Lloyd George was an old man. Churchill did not call upon him to play a role in the second world war. And the French girls he had flirted with in a local shop were merely laughing at him. The man who had won the first world war was a spent force by the time the second world War had begun.

Nevertheless, his was a great expansive life. Lloyd George came closer than any other Welshman to matching the mythical deeds of King Arthur or perhaps Merlin. All of this was wonderfully dramatised in this clever one hour play. Both nights at Mold were sold out; add this to the impressive turnout for the Mostyns of Mostyn lecture on Friday in Llanasa, and the popularity of History is self-evident. Perhaps History will become the new rock and roll.