"Under Milk Wood" by Dylan Thomas (16 Apr 2021)

Poster

For one night only, St Michael’s Players perform Dylan Thomas’ "Under Milk Wood" online.

Chiswick’s local theatre group, St Michael’s Players continue their series of live on-Line productions with a live, one night only, performance of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood. This much-loved play, vividly charts a single day in the life of a fictional village – Llareggub.  Beginning before dawn a wonderful array of colourful characters first appear in their dreams.  Then, as the village awakens and goes about its day, the lives and relationships of the villagers are revealed in all their richness -  their loves, jealousies, pettiness, hopes and memories – all told in Thomas’ beautiful prose and with a big dollop of affectionate humour.

Pictures

Reviews
"Really incredible how you created the atmosphere and brought the characters to life.  You should be very proud - it was great." Janet McN

"Really enjoyed Under Milk Wood, Al.  Huge congratulations to you all." Sheila B

"I thoroughly enjoyed Under Milkwood, and found  both the acting and the impressive scene changes engaging and funny. The technical side was  very well planned and rehearsed so that the  screen/screen changes were  slick and  seemless. It was pointed out to me that there were a couple of glitches, but I didnt even notice as i was too engrossed in the proceedings.  The actors did well to  both manage their  character changes and to control their zoom backgrounds and mute buttons!  The multitude of accents worked fine, helped by the fact that there were a few welsh accents to remind us that it was set in deepest Wales.  Under Milkwood was a very saucy play for its time, and I felt the production excellently portrayed its humour, quirkiness and sauciness.  Thank you and well done to everyone involved"  Debbie B

"Don't even think about the tech stuff.  M and I knew every word and loved it so it didn't matter to us. The narration was brilliant as was everyone else.  Mary Ann Sailors was just how Maggy imagined her to be.  She also loved Rev Eli.  I just loved it all. It's one of my absolutely favourite pieces so I had the book open too and no one put a foot wrong. Hats off to you all."  Glyn F

"Diolch yn Fawr. Thank you so much for a great performance of Under Milk Wood. I so enjoyed it. Thought the cast was strong, the settings very effective. A wonderful Friday night's entertainment." Judith E 

"Superb! Thank you" Paul F

"I really enjoyed Under Milkwood last night" Sheila B

"It was going to be hard to pull it off via YouTube- but you succeeded- what a jolly spirited performance- Bravo. 👏🏽” Sian M 

"Congratulations! An interesting performance, as in doing it via zoom and everyone did really well. Loved the charcoal drawings” Mike D.

“I enjoyed Under Milkwood v v v much last night - you were all brilliant”.  Sarah K.

"Excellent production”.  Jane H.

"It was marvellous and such a talented cast... really good fun to watch and I had forgotten how truly wonderful the language was. I feel like I’ve had a really good night out. Well done to all of you."  Elizabeth L 

"I loved every minute of it . .you all did a great job using all the tech!!"  Colin M

"Well done you and all the St Michael's Players - what a refreshing treat. I’m sure an online zoom production like that was a technical piece of mastery and eerie with no audience reaction. Thanks so much for letting me watch." Ben G 

​“Absolutely loved under Milk Wood! Everyone was excellent, and I’ll have to see how it compares to the National now...” Mrs M

"I thought the online presentation of Under Milk Wood worked marvellously well and the talented cast made the whole performance a triumph.

Your performance of the blind captain was wonderful. Memories of all those people in is life who had preceded him to the graveyard came across well along with his tracking of the postman’s visits to his neighbours commentary on likely business thereby transacted. Memory of the play from my school days had played tricks. I thought it was Organ Morgan who had died of drink and agriculture. It turned out to be the Rev Eli’s father. The other phrase that had stuck in the teenage brain was Captain Cat’s memories of ‘shipwreck in a certain lady’s thighs’

Please pass along my congratulations to all concerned and the singer in particular. Haunting! It was just the thing for an old rogue to foray on a Friday evening into his youthful memories. My English teacher was not more than 5 years older than her class, she was Welsh and yes, she was beautiful!" William M

"We enjoyed Under Milk Wood.  Tony has asked me to say a special thank you for providing us such a fun escape fro CoVid lock down" Kate

"What a tremendous performance. Loved every minute of it. Even your (Capt Cat) singing!! " 

"We watched “Under Milkwood” by St Michael’s Players Chiswick on Friday evening! Enjoyed it tremendously. We have a few Dylan Thomas poetry books in our library, including the script of Under Milkwood with Richard Burton and others reciting it in the 1950s BBC Radio Version on CD. We have to say that seeing the individuals on your version added an extra dimension. Congratulations to you and your colleagues, and our thanks for letting us know about it" Malcolm and Sheila B​

"Just a quick line to thank you for inviting us to this evening's Under Milk Wood which Betsy and I hugely enjoyed. Congratulations on your own empathetic performance and on the production as a whole. A lot of work had clearly been put into all the preparations which paid off in a very accomplished evening" Colin and Betsy R

Cast

First Voice (Arabella Harcourt-Cooze)
Second Voice (Bryony Wilman)
Flora Barker (Mae Rose Cottage, Lily Smalls, Waldo’s Mother, Woman in Shop)
David Burles (Mog Edwards, Mr Pugh, Lord Cut Glass, 5th Drowned)
Cecilia Coleshaw (Myfanwy Price, Mrs Willy Nilly, Neighbour, Woman in Dream)
Guy Fairbank (Mr Waldo, Cherry Owen, Mr Ogmore)
Rodger Hayward Smith (Captain Cat)
Stella Henney (Polly Garter, Gossamer Beynon, Mrs Waldo, Woman in Dream)
Chris Hulatt (Mr Beynon, Willy Nilly, Mr Pritchard, 4th Drowned)
Christine Lee (Mrs Pugh, Mrs Beynon, Neighbour, Woman in Shop, Woman in Dream)
Fergus Macphee (Nogood Boyo, Guidebook, 2nd Drowned, Fisherman, Drinker)
Deesh Mariwala (Rev Eli Jenkins, Dai Bread, 1st Drowned, Preacher)
Elizabeth Ollier (Mary Ann Sailors, Mrs Dai Bread One, Neighbour, Woman in Shop, Woman in
Dream)
Peter Price (Sinbad Sailors, Organ Morgan, Ocky Milkman, 3rd Drowned)
Emma Ranson (Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard, Mrs Dai Bread Two, Woman in Shop, Woman in Dream)
Emma Williams (Rosie Probert, Mrs Cherry Owen, Mrs Organ Morgan, Neighbour, Woman in
Dream)
Aria Mariwala & Lily Price (Children’s voices)

Crew

Director (Alastair Dewar)
Technical Director (Ian Trowbridge)
Technical co-ordination (Deesh Mariwala)
Costumes (Bryony Wilman)
Artwork (Arabella Harcourt-Cooze)