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Theatre

Review: Under Milk Wood, Theatr Clwyd, Mold

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Dylan Thomas, A Theatr Clwyd production. Theatr Clwyd March 19-April 4, 2026; 2 hrs 20 mins

out of 5 stars (4.5 / 5)

Dylan Thomas was a dreamer, drifter, poet and rogue and Under Milk Wood is undoubtedly his masterpiece. Often described as a “play for voices”, Thomas himself described it as “prose with blood pressure”.  

The storyline is undeniably simple: a day in the life of a village, Llareggub. But it’s the detail that matters.  The play opens by expressing the dreams of a host of villagers and describing their village, then portrays an ordinary day, drawing out the attitudes, character and actions of the villagers. There is a marked difference between the nature of those dreams and their daily life. The set is simple and imaginative, focusing on a houses jumbled together on a hillside – evocative of many villages in the Welsh Valleys.

This new production, directed by Theatr Clwyd’s artistic director, Kate Wasserberg, rejects static recital and animates the prose using quite a large company, incorporating several actors who are deaf, disabled or neurodivergent. The degree of preparation must have been difficult, tying together tightly- choreographed movement with the text and incorporating sign language; but cast members are nonetheless highly accomplished and thoroughly well schooled by movement director Laura Meaton – the action flows seamlessly. The cast works together as a team and during the first act there are no stand-out performers, just a group working together in unity.

During the second act a few players have the chance to shine, Georgia Griffiths sings beautifully as Polly Garter; Amy Conachan wheels around the stage in her chair with aplomb, and Sean Carlson starts and ends the day beuatifully with a wistful poem as the Reverend Jenkins.

Of course the most delightful aspect of this play is the prose. It draws you into the story and invests you in the characters. There is acute observation; Thomas knows these people and describes them affectionately, warts and all. There is an earthy, realistic humour as well as a large amount of pathos amid this excellent characterisation. The cast is great at bringing this prose to life, even though the combination of action, sign language, slick movement and on-screen text can be an assault on your eyesight at times.

This is not a traditional play, but it is a profound experience. From a mundane situation the play draws out the joys and tragedies that life brings, as well as describing an almost idyllic setting of woods, mountains, river and sea, making this an intense, but thoroughly enjoyable, night’s entertainment.

Dance

Review Caitlin, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff by Barbara Michaels

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catlin-02
 
Credit Warren Orchard
Choreography: Deborah Light, Eddie Ladd and Gwyn Emberton
Director: Deborah Light
Caitlin; Eddie Ladd
Dylan: Gwyn Emberton
Reviewer: Barbara Michaels
Rating: [3.5]
Based on the writing of Caitlin, the wife of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, this dance production tells of her life with the poet through the medium of a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous which she started to attend some twenty years after his death. Similar in style that of the one-woman show performed at the Sherman Theatre in 2003, it could equally have been named ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy.’
Caitlin’s recognition of the destruction wrought upon her life is portrayed in a series of dance moves, many of them violent in the extreme. In focussing on the turbulences of the Dylan marriage, director choreographer Deborah Light adheres closely to Caitlin’s own perception of her alcoholism and her life. The athleticism and technical skills of Eddie Ladd as Caitlin are showcased brilliantly, although there is a tendency to over- use of repetition, which can be tedious at times. One thinks of Ladd as a dancer but Light also allows her to speak, albeit briefly. Her speaking voice enthrals as much as her dance technique and makes a considerable contribution to Ladd’s characterisation. Her reiteration at intervals throughout that, while Dylan was a poet, “I could have been a dancer” adds poignancy to the overall projection of chaos, with dancers and furniture crashing around the stage for much of the time.
Ladd’s boundless energy is phenomenal, as is that of Gwyn Emberton, as Dylan. Many of Emberton’s dance moves require him to roll around the floor or balance precariously on a pyramid of stacked tubular and plastic chairs that teeter ominously. The said chairs are an integral part of the production, being used by the dancers use not only to represent actual objects – a baby’s pushchair, for instance – but also mood. There is no set, and these are the only props, barring a paperback book and four glasses of water with sweets in. Seated on some twenty chairs of the same ilk are the remainder of the cast (actually the audience), representing the members of the AA meeting which Caitlin is addressing.
In the year which marks the centenary of Dylan Thomas’s birth and the 60th anniversary of the iconic Under Milk Wood, it was inevitable that all aspects of his life would be explored in theatrical performances both nation and world-wide. His lifelong battle with alcoholism has been well documented; that of his wife Caitlin possibly less well so, In portraying this, and showing that while in some aspects it bound them together, Light’s production shows how eventually it destroyed not only their marriage but both of them.
Runs at Chapter for two more performance: Thursday October 30th at 6.30 and 8.30
Performances on Mon 3 + Tue 4 Nov at Volcano, The Iceland Building, 27-31 High Street, Swansea.