Strange intro and coda – wonderful main course
Just back from Under Milk Wood at the National.
The poetic play for voices is already a perfectly good dramatic piece, but the National extends its reach by setting the play in a Care Home (the original play is somewhat bookended by new material to create an additional narrative), and then recasting the residents and staff as the inhabitants of Llaraggub.
This mise-en-scene isn’t entirely convincing, but when we finally reach Dylan Thomas all can be (sort-of) forgiven.
Michael Sheen has rightly been picked out for critical acclaim (great acting, phenomenal memory), as the Narrator/Voice 1, with Karl Johnson as his (Care Home) father – using the story to stimulate his dementia; but this is a National Theatre ensemble piece, with many fine actors.
It does, however, require the excellent Siân Phillips to play, inter alia, the fecund Polly Garter (she is probably the only actor of her vintage who could do, and get away with it).
A Play for Voices – originally radio broadcast - does pose problems for a theatrical production of course – as it is almost without physical action – but I am not sure the National has found the solution.
But this is a niggle – the Dylan Thomas element (most of the play) speaks for itself, and the acting and direction are top-drawer.