Dylan Thomas’s ‘play for voices’ takes to Leamington stage

Leamington’s Loft Theatre is celebrating the centenary of the birth of Dylan Thomas by staging his much-celebrated ‘play for voices’, Under Milk Wood from this week.
By The Newsroom
Published 4th May 2014, 08:00 BST
First Voice (centre front) with the rest of the cast of Under Milk Wood at the Loft in Leamington.First Voice (centre front) with the rest of the cast of Under Milk Wood at the Loft in Leamington.
First Voice (centre front) with the rest of the cast of Under Milk Wood at the Loft in Leamington.

The writer spent eight years working on the piece - originally written for radio - before finally submitting his draft to the BBC in September 1953. Sadly, he died two months later, so never heard the first adaptation of his work, broadcast in January 1954.

The tale follows the people of Llareggbu, a small Welsh fishing town, who, along with a few ghosts, tell their stories through prose-poetry and song. The characters include blind seafarer and narrator Captain Cat and his ghostly girlfriend Rosie Probert, houseproud Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard and her two dead husbands, local bard Reverend Eli Jenkins, Dai Bread and his two wives and local bawd Polly Garter.

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Loft director Tim Willis said: “I had long promised myself to direct this sensitive, often comic, celebration of Welsh life. What better time to fulfil that promise than in celebration of the centenary of Dylan’s birth.”

Tickets for the show, which runs from Wednesday (May 7) until May 17, are available from the theatre box office on 0844 493 4938 and online: www.loft-theatre.co.uk

Related topics:Leamington