We concentrate in this episode on the actors who performed in anterliwtiau, examining a number of different literary texts which throw light on their work and their identity.
Like a theatre company today, an anterliwt company in the eighteenth century travelled from place to place and staged performances in different communities. The evidence shows that these actors were ‘lads’, young men who left their normal jobs temporarily in order to ‘follow an anterliwt’. We suggest that the anterliwt is a fruitful field for those who want to study the material foundations of Welsh culture in the period. We also suggest that it’s a fruitful field for anthropological interpretations.