Under Milk Wood

‘Under Milk Wood’ by iconic Welsh poet and author, Dylan Thomas, is a comedy play giving an account of a spring day in the life of the fictional Welsh seaside village of Llareggub. I was delighted to accept the invite from PODS in their centenary year, to their first ever outdoor performance and to continue my list of ‘firsts’ in my role as district 4 representative with the first time I’ve ever reported on an outdoor performance, my first ever ‘radio style’ play and my first visit to the beautiful grounds of The Kymin.

The eleven cast members worked extremely hard in entertaining the almost three hundred people in attendance. They remained focused at all times and did not allow noises of the local surroundings or the scurrying of the audience to grab their coats and ponchos in the brief rain shower to distract them at any point. This was very impressive.

Leading the cast as ‘First Voice’ was South Wales theatre veteran, Steve Saunders. Steve gave an excellent performance, holding the audience’s attention through large passages of dialogue, with an incredible delivery and tone to his voice. During the interval, a fellow audience member commented that “he has a voice made for the role” and I certainly agreed with that.

Opposite Steve, Penni Carr was ‘Second Voice’. I really enjoyed her performance, full of character and confidence. Her interactions with her fellow cast members did not go unnoticed by me and really added to the experience.

The rest of the cast played several roles each. An enormous amount of work had gone into understanding the different characters and content of the play and there was a clear distinction between each character that each individual cast member portrayed. This report would be several pages long if I went on to comment on all of them but I will try to summarise my favourite characters.

Richard Griffiths (Captain Cat, Mr Pugh, Mr Ogmore, Sinbad Sailors) had plenty to do throughout. His portrayal of the long suffering ‘Mr Pugh’ was very comical.

Kelly Thompson (Polly Garter, Mae Rose Cottage, Mrs Willy Nilly, Gossamer Beynon) showed a lovely, soft character whilst singing about the only man she’d ever loved. For large portions of her singing she was unaccompanied but remained tuneful throughout.

Jim Lediard (Willy Nilly, Mr Pritchard, Cherry Owen, Lord Cut-Glass, Dai Bread) made me smile every time he was on stage. He had brilliant comedic timing and the Willy Nilly postman sequence was amongst my favourite parts of the production.

Amanda Matthews (Rosie Probert, Mrs Dai Bread 2, Mrs Cherry Owen, Lily Smalls, Gwennie) was full of energy throughout. She had great character and delivery. The ‘Gwennie’ section really made me laugh.

Nick Thomas (Reverand Eli Jenkins, Organ Morgan, Mog Edwards, Mr Waldo, Mr Beynon) was a commanding presence on the stage. He held the audience’s attention with his tremendous voice. He had lots of quick character changes and dealt with these very well.

Linda Morgan-Groves; (Mrs Organ Morgan and Mrs Ogmore Pritchard) made everyone laugh as she tormented her former husbands.

Melissa Rabaiotti gave good performances as Mary Ann Sailors and Guidebook, as well as providing sound effects for some of the aspects of the play.

Sarah Knowles (Mrs Pugh, Myfanwy Price, Mrs Dai Bread 1, Mrs Beynon) had great energy and expression throughout. The exchanges between the Mrs Dai Breads were excellent.

Simon Carter gave solid performances as Nogood Boyo and Jack Black but huge credit must be given to him for playing the violin live all evening when called upon. Not a note was missed; it was truly lovely!

The simple staging allowed the audience to have different aspects to look at and the costumes were appropriate for the piece. For the most part the sound quality was excellent, with a couple of hiccups that were to be expected with being outdoors.

I must admit I was sceptical about coming to see a ‘script in hand, radio style’ play but I was pleasantly surprised. I had a lovely evening and I thank everyone involved for the lovely welcome and their hospitality. I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

The views in this report are solely of the author.

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