The Questors in Ealing continues to experiment with their programme, making their work a definite draw. Their current studio production is Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood, a ‘play of voices’.
Director Simon Roberts (who also appears as Captain Cat) has taken this literally, shrouding the actors in shadow with only a dim backlight. We are here to ‘listen’.
Under Milk Wood presents a night and day in the life of the inhabitants of Llareggub (read it backwards) and is fairly bawdy, wistfully beautiful, and definitely character-driven.
Lighting designers Andrew Whadcoat and Mark White have created a soporific atmosphere in which the dreams and daily lives of the 28 characters, played by 9 actors, fragment through the play.
It’s all about the language, and the occasional moments of movement and connection are powerfully conveyed. One moment of fourth-wall breaking feels curiously overdone, but the rest reaches into Thomas’s text and trusts the rhythm.
One can only review the actors as if they were participants in a radio play, and I’d like to highlight the performances of Lucy Aley-Parker’s formidable Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard, Paul Collins’s henpecked Mr Pugh, Julian Casey’s overbearing Waldo and Bach-obsessed Organ Morgan.
The women are led by Anne Marie Ryan‘s delicate Polly Garter, a resolute serial single mother, and the light romance of Myfanwy Price (Felicia Massiah) and Meg Edwards (Alison Griffin).
It’s Captain Cat’s ‘dead dears’, and his longing for Rosie Probert (Samantha Moran) that captures the heart of a past forgotten, contrasting with Nogood Boyo (Mark Redrup) and his rutting in the woods.
Sex and relationships, real or longed for, are core to Llareggub. Routine, too, as Willy Nilly (Collins) gleefully reveals the content of letters he delivers, Lord Cut-Glass (Casey) lives within a house of ticking clocks, each set to a different time, and Sinbad Sailors (Redrup) always keeps the pub open.
It’s an interesting production. I may have varied the lighting levels slightly to suggest night and day, or utilise torches to highlight speakers, but this adaptation is never dull, helped along by Mike Wyer’s sound design and composition.
I’m giving this 3 stars. I enjoyed it but was left wondering whether this really worked as a stage production rather than simply presenting it as an accomplished audio piece.
Under Milk Wood continues at the Questors until 14 Jun – details here.
Image credit: Kanato Hata