What is the relevance of a tiny Welsh coastal village today? That was the question I found myself asking for the first half of this adaptation of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood, writes Hannah Kelly.
Set in a care home, Michael Sheen animates Thomas’ fictional village of Llareggub. This is a place lost in time and in the memory of Richard Jenkins(Karl Johnson), the ageing father of Sheen’s character. As the poem lilts in and out of the daily lives of Llareggub’s residents, it provides detailed accounts of the landscape and the marital affairs of the village. These lives are punctuated with solemnity and humour and the marriage of the ageing Pughs produced some good chuckles.
Yet the central action is not the village, but the father and son relationship. This is the catalyst for remembering in the first place. Therefore, the first half of the play is a little slow. It isn’t until a sudden turn towards the beginning of spring that Johnson’s character starts remembering for himself. From then on, it is the dynamic between the unravelling relationship between the two Jenkins that marks the emotional anchor. Without them the nostalgic Llareggub appears to bear no relevance at all to the events unfolding outside the theatre.
Aside from the sometimes waning content in the first half, the staging is magnificent. Set in the round at the Olivier, one feels that the audience is invited in to make up the village and the care home. Sheen’s central dialogue is moved along by the animation of each of the village’s colourful characters; played by the likes of Siân Phillips and Ifan Huw Dafydd. I was particularly struck by Gaynor Morgan Rees, who brought a sense of lightness to the otherwise dense poetry.
Sheen is brilliant and his passion for each word is unmissable. The deterioration of his character is subtle and by the end of the play I was entirely convinced of the unspoken dynamic between himself and Johnson as his father.
In answer to my first question, a fictional Welsh village is not enormously relevant today. That is why it is worth pushing through the first twenty minutes. In Under Milk Wood we discover the power that layers of memory evoke as they draw someone back and bring someone else forward, meeting at a moment of reconciliation. This is the theme that feels abundantly relevant today.
Under Milk Wood is now sold out for all performances.