On Tour: Y Cwmni

This will be the last tour we'll do in this way. In the past we've done lots of one-night stands, some in city art centres, others in rural areas. But it doesn't work any more, trying to take shows round briefly. As we've grown, the set design has improved and we no longer feel that we can do a proper show in a small venue. Ideally it would be great if we could go to an old chapel in mid-Wales and stay for 10 nights, but we can't afford it.

We did play a converted chapel for two or three years in Pen-y-graig in the Rhondda Valley. It was a great venue, with the audience sitting on pews. The best place though was Ystradgynlais, in an old miners' welfare hall. It was a small mining community yet 300 people came both nights. The last show that had been there was The Cat and the Canary in 1963.

I suppose playing in rural Wales has affected the writing. So far none of the plays has been set in a city, but that doesn't mean the writing is naturalistic. They are set in a reinvented Wales.

The profile of a theatre company which is Welsh is pretty low. It's not the same as having an Irish, a gay or a black identity and it is hard to find affordable venues in London. It might appear that we're Celto-centric because we're not playing London, but really we'll go anywhere if we can.

Our worst night? It had to be when an actor refused to die at the end of a performance. It was at the Edinburgh Festival in 1989, and he insisted on a happy ending. We had a chat about it and decided that he would die the next night and he did.

Edward Thomas is author of 'East from the Gantry' currently being toured by Y Cwmni theatre company until March, and at the Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea (0792 296883) tomorrow.

(Photograph omitted)