Under Milk Wood: captivating and magical

REVIEW: 'Under Milk Wood' at Sherman Theatre, Cardiff

To begin at the beginning...

It is a spring full-moon night in the city of Cardiff as we visit a spring moonless night in the small town of Llareggub. It is the middle of the night and the residents of the town are sleeping. Not soundly though. Dylan Thomas opens the front door of their homes to us and straight into their dreams, disturbed and restless.

The sky is dark on this moonless and starless night, and the buildings are still. The ‘sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea” sits at the bottom of the town. He paints the picture perfectly.

I’ve seen many productions of Under Milk Wood. The first time I read it was in school, and this town, this fantasy of Dylan’s mind, had me hooked.

The production was made as part of Craidd, five Welsh organisations - Theatr Clwyd, Sherman Theatre, Pontio Arts, The Torch Theatre, and The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, who share a commitment to change and inclusive theatre.

Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent performers were fully integrated into the performance, British Sign Language was woven in, with actors signing for each other.

There were also captions projected on to the scenery, making it an accessible play for a wider group of people. It was such a natural part of the play and made it a rich and interesting production, allowing us to access the words in the way we felt most comfortable with.

Each actor played the part of First Voice, guiding us through the vivid dreams of the sleeping townspeople, filled with longing, mischief and lost love. Here we learn their true thoughts and meet the characters that will fill the streets soon enough.

As dawn breaks and they rise, dreams left behind, we learn about the reality of their daily lives, the gossip, the scandal, the unrequited love, it is all here. Dylan Thomas captures Welsh humour perfectly with his words, not one of them wasted as he describes each character and the pattern of their lives.

The brilliant cast are Adam Bassett, Seán Carlsen, Jacob Coleman, Amy Conachan, Mirain Fflur, Chandu Gopalakrishnan, Georgia Griffiths, Izzi McCormack, Macsen McKay, Caroline Parker and Douglas Walker. The director is Kate Wasserberg.

Llareggub came alive on the stage at the Sherman in a way I’ve never seen before and it was captivating and magical. It was warm, funny, and brought the words on the page to life in a way I’ve not seen before. This is an exceptional production which left us feeling as if we had spent the day with these larger-than-life characters and truly seen the world Dylan Thomas created.

Under Milk Wood is at the Sherman Theatre until 9 May. You can find out more and buy tickets here.

Review by Helen Byrne

We received free tickets for this performance in exchange for an honest review