| POWERFUL AND TRUE |
At Louche Theatre |
| Louche Theatre- Portrait of Dylan , The Dragon Theatre, Barmouth- , May 10, 2014 |
Being 100 years since his birth we are spoilt for choice with Dylan Thomas offerings. The excellent Dylan100 organisation list everything from pub crawls to poetry readings to horse rides to theatre productions of his works or works about him, of which this was one.If I’m honest many of the events didn’t really excite me, but this journey through his complex and troubled life did. Louche Theatre’s slick and detailed production has a narrator, the Porter at the hotel he was staying in when he died. Daz O’Connell gave a studied and understanding portrayal, giving our porter a life of his own and not just narrating the events. O’Connell had a wonderful Bronx accent too. The play really starts when Dylan and his friend, Dan are eight years old. The Young Dylan and Young Dan were played with great clarity and gusto by two boys of about that age, Dylan Edwards and Matteo Langdon. Lovely performances from both. The play ends some thirty-one years later with Dylan’s death. In between we meet his many lovers, his wife, his doctors and his neighbours. John Edwards as Dylan gave a performance that was hard to fault and his readings of Dylan Thomas’s best know poems were spot on. He had obviously studied his subject matter very well, and it showed as he moved from drunken womaniser to reflective poet. Superb portrayal. Milly Jackdaw as Caitlin Thomas gave us all the passion, anger, and recklessness of Caitlin. Again it was obvious that Jackdaw understood her character so well. When Dylan and Caitlin were together on stage the sparks flew, both for the actors and the characters. Great work. We had detailed, totally believable portrayals of two of his lovers, Liz Reitel and Pearl, both Americans with excellent accents, by Chelsea Taylor and Tiffany Evans. The standard of acting by the 17 strong company was so very good. A uniformly excellent standard, something we have come to expect from Louche Theatre. Wardrobe by Caroline Clark and lights from Stephen Griffiths and Lisa Lewis, plus excellent sound by Jojo Engelkamp and Andy Gatherer were of the highest standard and added so much to this outstanding production. Harry Durnall’s design and direction simply could not be faulted but then we have come to expect a very high standard from this experienced director. The large, appreciative audience at The Dragon Theatre were spellbound from the opening lines and remained so until the end. I spoke to one gentleman in the bar at the interval who was , to use his words “ knocked out by this play and the company” As he said “ I can’t wait to see them again”. Nor can I |
Reviewed by: Martin Williams. |
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