Under Milk Wood

Messing with the setting of a much-adored play is a move that can often spell disaster for a well-intentioned production. Every once in a while, however, bold revisions can feel strangely appropriate. With its origins in radio, Under Milk Wood poses multiple challenges for a visual stage production. Mercifully, this young theatre group excels not only in faithfully reproducing the chaotic beauty of its original text, but also in enhancing it with a contextual twist.

By transposing action from a bustling town to a blitz-bombed pub, the characters who populate the fictional town of Llareggub become ghostly representations of their former lives as they replay their final day. The new setting adds an undercurrent of regret and sadness to the energy of the play, a foreboding that culminates in the ghosts returning to their graves.

The cast never once betray their youth; this is a universally excellent performance from an extraordinarily versatile theatre group. Their confidence and professionalism are impeccable as they weave their intertwining narratives and rhythmically complex dialogue. From a play with its origins in radio, this production offers some deliciously inventive visual details and choreography. The physicality of the performances mirrors the dialogue: actors move like smoke, transforming from character to character with the addition or subtraction of an item of costume. This all brings an eerie atmosphere to the production, a sense that one might really be witnessing the echoes of lives recently extinguished.