UNDER MILK WOOD to 16 May.
UNDER MILK WOOD
by Dylan Thomas.
Royal and Derngate, Northampton.
Runs: 2h 20m, one interval, to 16 May 2009.
www.royalandderngate.co.uk
Review: Ian Spiby, Thursday 7 May.
A production that has everything except something.
Director Adele Thomas and designer Hannah Clark set the production in the cemetery of LLareggub and with five actors, tell us the story of a day in the life of the town.
And how they work! Taking up to eleven parts each, the actors are constantly on the move, putting on and taking off costumes, wigs and hats from rails at the side of the stage, assuming their various characters and then performing almost instantaneous changes to assume others. And I couldn’t fault them. Every character is fully formed and different from the next; some are comic, some are pathetic but all reveal a commitment and energy that is admirable. It is led by Aled Pugh’s 1st Voice who moulds and shapes the language beautifully
So what went wrong? Why wasn’t I drawn in to this most wonderful of language plays?
I am reminded of the story of Anton Chekhov who accused director Stanislavsky of spoiling his plays because he added extraneous stage effects like distant trains to his productions. And I feel that in a way Adele Thomas has done the same. She appears to have thrown every idea she has ever had into the production.
No line is allowed to go by without it being illustrated by music or a visual effect. If Dylan Thomas describes a character in his dreams drinking from a glass which turns into a fish, we see both the glass and the fish. If Organ Morgan plays the organ we hear Bach played at a thundering volume while the conversation of gossiping neighbors is projected in surtitles on the back wall. The result is a sensory overload and we as an audience turn off.
In his play for radio, Dylan Thomas made his audience work to imagine the characters and situations. In adapting it for the theatre we should have been made to work as well– in a different way it is true – but work all the same.
Matthew Bulgo: Mog Edwards, Eli Jenkins, Nogood Boyo, Mr Pritchard, Sinbad Sailors, Dickie, Attila Rhys, Ocky Milkman, Organ Morgan, Butcher Beynon, Evans the Death
Arwel Gruffydd: Captain Cat, Mr Ogmore, Lord Cutglass, Old Man, Mr Pugh, Cherry Owen, Mr Waldo, Jack Black, Willy Nilly, Dai Bread
Sarah Harries-Davies: Rosie Probert, Polly Garter, Mrs Ogmore Pritchard, Mrs Beynon, Mrs Pugh, Mrs Dai Bread 1, Mrs Willy Nilly
Katy Owen: Myfanwy Price, Mae Rose Cottage, Child, Mrs Organ Morgan, Gossamer Beynon, Lily Smalls, Mary Ann the Sailors, Gwennie, Mrs Dai Bread 2, Mrs Cherry Owen
Aled Pugh: 1st Voice
Director: Adele Thomas
Designer: Hannah Clark
Lighting Designer: Lizzie Powell
Composers and Sound Designers:
Elena Pena and Dafydd James
Casting Director: Leigh-Ann Regan
Deputy Stage Manager on the Book:
Darren Abel
2009-05-10 17:05:21