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Howell Evans, Jennifer Hill, Philip Madoc, Anne Rutter and Cerith Flynn |
Camden theatre | Dylan Thomas's play Under Milk Wood | Tricycle Theatre review |
UNDER MILK WOOD
Tricycle Theatre
THE Welsh poet Dylan Thomas was at one time a repertory theatre actor.
His expressionistic radio play for voices, Under Milk Wood, was first performed in New York in 1953 with the author reading the part of the First Voice.
It was conceived as a radio play, commissioned by the BBC, whose first broadcast was two months after Thomas’s death, with the young Richard Burton taking the part of the First Voice. From there, it has gone on to gain worldwide recognition.
In Malcolm Taylor’s production, the First Voice is performed by the distinguished Welsh actor, Philip Madoc, and the Second by Gareth Kennerley. The director has concentrated on the visual aspects of the text, sometimes at the expense of the poetry.
Having myself been brought up on a diet of Burton’s “preacher” voice, Yeats’s rendering of his Lake Isle of Innisfree and John Cainey’s Rabbie Burns, I was expecting a reincarnation of the Celtic twilight – Milk Wood has reached out to a much wider audience, having been translated into many languages from Serbo-Croat to Japanese.
The inhabitants of Laugharne have become citizens of the world.
Howell Evans portrayal of the blind Captain Cat was most moving – as was the sensual Abbi Harris’s performance of Polly Garter.
The voice of the Guidebook is a taped reading by TV star David Jason, who appeared in the 1970 West End revival, also directed by Malcolm Taylor for the London Theatre Company (LTC).
The LTC produced this revival, which includes Jennifer Hill (she plays an array of characters, including Mrs Organ Morgan) and Philip Madoc – both actors were in the 1970 production.
What is paramount in the present revival is the poet’s humanity.
It hangs like a glowing beacon, transcending the rather Spartan auditorium and shielding the audience from the urban chaos of north London.
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