'It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobbled streets silent…'
The Watermill Theatre announces the cast for Dylan Thomas’ comic masterpiece, Under Milk Wood, A Play for Voices…, which runs from 25 October to 4 November. Alistair McGowan (West End, RSC, Lyric, TV, Radio 4) will lead the company in a production which forms part of the theatre’s 50th anniversary programme. Under Milk Woodwas The Watermill’s first professional production in 1967 with a cast that included David Jason.
Directed by Brendan O'Hea, McGowan will be the First Voice in a company playing multiple roles that includes Steffan Cennydd (Reverend Eli Jenkins), Ross Ford (Mr. Pugh), Lynn Hunter (Captain Cat), Charlotte O’Leary(Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard) and Caroline Sheen (Polly Garter), who appeared as Polly Baker in The Watermill’s 2016 production of Crazy For You.
Some of literature’s best-loved characters including blind Captain Cat, Polly Garter Reverend Eli Jenkins and No Good Boy, all inhabitants of the small Welsh seaside village of Llareggub, will be brought to life using a combination of sound and voices. The bawdy vignette of small-town life, with the daily happenings and innermost thoughts of the inhabitants laid bare, is lyrical, funny and deeply moving.
Under Milk Wood is designed Anna Kelsey and the sound designer is Gary Dixon.
Under Milk Wood is the penultimate professional production of The Watermill Theatre’s 50th anniversary year. During 2017, three Watermill productions have toured nationally, with Romeo and Juliet in repertoire with Twelfth Night, also playing at Neuss Globe Theatre, Germany. UK tours include the second national tour of The Wipers Times by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman, a Trademark Touring and Watermill Theatre production - West End and UK Tour (12 Sept to 18 Nov) and Crazy For You, a Watermill Theatre production presented by Jamie Wilson and Gavin Kalin (17 Aug to 19 May 2018). The theatre has also transferred two productions to London in 2017, Murder For Two, in association with Paul Taylor-Mills, to The Other Palace and Frankenstein to Wilton’s Music Hall. Loot by Joe Orton, presented by Tom O’Connell, James Seabright and The Watermill Theatre in association with King’s Head Theatre and Park Theatre, transfers to The Watermill following its critically acclaimed run at Park Theatre on 28 September until 21 October.
