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In honour of Wallace, a Welsh hero

 

The life and work of Usk-born naturalist and Welsh hero Alfred Russel Wallace are being celebrated at the National Botanic Garden of Wales.

July 1st has been declared “Wallace Day” at the biggest and most-visited garden in Wales, in honour of the 150th anniversary of the joint presentation by Wallace and Darwin to the Linnaean Society of their ground-breaking paper – entitled The Theory of Evolution By Natural Selection.

The Garden’s celebrations include the world premiere of a specially-commissioned play about Wallace and a unique exhibition about his life and work.

Theatr na n’Og will present their new one-man play ‘You Should Ask Wallace’, performed by Ioan Hefin and written and directed by Geinor Styles.

This outdoor performance will focus on the aspects of Wallace’s inspirational character that led him to think up the idea of evolution by natural selection.

There will be performances of this 30-minute play in the Wallace Garden at 10.45am, 12 noon and 1.15pm for GCSE and ‘A’ Level syllabus students (from Cardiff, Barry and Aberdare) who will be spending a day at the Botanic Garden studying genetics and evolution.

There will be a special 3pm performance for invited Garden guests.

At 2pm, we will be launching Fred Langford Edward's exhibition on Wallace in the Garden’s Courtyard Gallery.

The Forgotten Evolutionist (July 1-July 24) consists of photographs and installations based on the natural history specimens collected by Wallace in the Amazon and the Far East referenced by Wallace in A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and The River Negro and in The Malay Archipelago. All the specimens and sketches represent history in the making. While drawing, collecting and studying the fauna and flora in the Amazon and in the Malay Archipelago, Wallace was formulating his theories about evolution.

It is supported by the Wellcome Trust.

During the exhibition launch, Anne Cluysenaar will read from her illustrated poem-sequence Batu-Angas:Envisioning Nature with Alfred Russel Wallace (new out from Seren).

NB: There are further performances of ‘You Should Ask Wallace’ on:

- Wednesday July 2nd, 10.45am and 12 noon for schools only
- Thursday July 3rd and Friday July 4th, 10.45am, 12 noon and 1.15pm performances for schools; 3pm performance for Garden visitors
- Saturday July 5th, 12 noon, 1.15pm and 3pm performances for Garden visitors

Images available in connection with Wallace Day
Butterfly	Orangutan
Bird beak	Orangutan skull
Sketch of a lace-maker	Horny beetle