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And the cheers and applause went on and on... Under Milk Wood, a review |
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Written by Dean Beedell (webmaster)
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Whilst in that euphoric half sleep in the darkest before dawn, I was
there. I was there in Llareggub, that sleepy little Welsh sea-side
village of less than five hundred souls and three quaint streets and
black dab-filled sea, where the one place of worship with its neglected
graveyard is of no architectural interest and bugger all happens. Dylan
Thomas? words pulsing rhythmically through my mind, backed softly by
Polly Garter singing wistfully about her long dead lover rocked me
gently awake. For for a few short hours the night before, I had been
privileged to hear the story of Under Milk Wood by the Welsh wizard
word-smith who has woven such a story in words around this sleepy back
water of life that has enthralled audiences for almost sixty years.
The words simply stay with you ar hyd y nos ? all through the night.
Llarregub is, of course, Bugger all backwards and for just two nights,
Henley Amateur Operatic & Dramatic Society gave spellbinding
performances of this classic tale in their intimate performance space,
The HAODS Studio. The dreaming, the scheming, the drinking, the dead
and the living all portrayed with graphic clarity by the members of the
Society. The story of Under Milk Wood was actually the play within the
play for it was the Pontypridd Repertory Amateur Thespian Society ? The
P.R.A.T.S - who had won the a competition in 1954 to broadcast their
reading of the play at the BBC Wales studios in Cardiff. I have seen it
as a full stage play, but this was a unique way to stage it, for Thomas
actually described it as ?A Play for Voices? and that is exactly what
we were treated to, as we were transported back to those heady days
when radio was in its zenith and sound effects were created live with
an array of implements including a very convincing cock ? crow that
came from somewhere among this talented cast! The cast were all reading
from their scripts, which I thought at first would be distracting, but
of course, in a radio broadcast, they do read from their scripts. I
soon discovered that it was not distracting at all and I could simply
close my eyes and drink in the rhythms and rhymes as though I was back
1954 listening to a radio broadcast. They even managed to get around
the fact that the children in the play could not turn up as they were
ill with measles and in quarantine and the fact that one member of the
cast was obviously an Englishman! The fourteen strong cast deftly
played the sixty plus characters demonstrating a deep understanding of
the text, thereby wringing out every humorous moment and every moment
of pathos.
This was a well drilled cast who had taken their jobs very
seriously. They are too many to mention by name, but I have to pick out
one or two for special mention, Gareth Saunders, who played the
PRATS? aptly-named Treasurer, Dylan Bevan, also gave us the voice of
the narrator ? ?First Voice? and the Rev Eli Jenkins, his delicious
soft Welsh tones drawing us into the word-painted-picture aided deftly
by Richard Evans playing Aneurin Idris-Williams taking the part of the
Second Voice with equal verbal dexterity. The blend of these two voices
was simply a masterpiece. A third voice was introduced for some of the
longer narratives, played by the token Englishman, Geoff Atkinson as
Quentin Ormerod ?Thomas, the Artistic Director at BBC Wales, which I
felt worked well and gave the audience light and shade. I was
especially impressed by Brian Head who as Meredith Edwards played Blind
Captain Cat. This actor had the best line in the play when remembering
his lost love Polly Garter, and begs her to let him ?Shipwreck in your
thighs?. What was so impressive was that Brian is actually blind and
therefore was the only one who had to learn his lines. The rest of the
cast were all of equal dexterity switching from character to character
moving from one microphone emblazed with the Prince of Wales Feathers
to another which kept us on our toes. The whole production was
accompanied by Anne Edwards on a very in-keeping accordion and again,
the sounds she produced were a perfect fit with the production. What
was also a perfect fit with the production was a highly amusing
programme (there were not enough of them though!) and a rendition of Ar
Hyd y Nos, the beautiful Welsh ballad lead by the director, Julie
Huntington ? who was also the PRATS director, by the way, and of course
finally a rousing chorus of the Welsh National Anthem that had the by
then very emotional Welsh in audience (and there were quite a lot!) on
their feet raising the roof with descants and harmonies. HAODS ? or
the PRATS for that matter, were left in no doubt about the success of
the production for the applause and cheers simply went on and on and on
.... Congratulations to you all on such a moving, funny, entertaining
and thought provoking evening. If you missed it, I feel sorry for
you... but I was there......
Robert Sterling
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