Community Archived Reviews Under Milk Wood
KDHX Theatre Review - Under Milk Wood
The West End Players Guild
Reviewed by Richard Green
The world is a more beautiful place than we may dare to understand.
That fact is made ringingly clear this week in St. Louis in the first few minutes of Under Milk Wood, by the great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. His lavish verse and great good humor are vividly brought to life by a talented cast, and especially by the Welsh-born actress Teresa Doggett.
As the first narrator in the show, Ms. Doggett is beautifully hypnotic describing the pre-dawn stillness of Milk Wood, the setting for the 1953 play. (Thomas died shortly after completing the work.) The words and music of Wales are truly luscious on Ms. Doggett's lilting tongue. It's magical to hear.
Chuck Lavazzi, as the second narrator for the show, wisely maintains a simple, straightforward kindliness that doesn't pretend to be Welsh, yet keeps the words warm and rich.
A rather impressive line-up of actors backs-up the narrators, directed by the estimable Steve Callahan, presenting a series of short fabliaux set in a seaside town from early morning on to night.
Ms. Doggett's narration weaves a hushed spell, at least until she gets to one man's dream of poisoning his blustery wife. That couple (Daniel Higgins and Eleanor Mullin) provides one of the most memorable comic highlights. Ms. Doggett's voice rises from its seductive quiet, to wild imaginings of toes blowing up like black balloons and ears falling off like figs. Wordlessly, Mr. Higgins simply glows with delight. Elsewhere, Ms. Mullin is funny as an overly apologetic tour guide.
Another moment of domesticity, where poetry becomes funnier than prose could ever be: Elisabeth Wienke gently refreshes Sean Ruprecht-Belt's memory of the drunken night before, saying “the floor was all flagons and eels.” Vomit has rarely sounded so lovely.
With the first-annual Kevin Kline award nominations just announced, it's interesting to note that nominee Doggett is united on stage with fellow honorees Nancy Lewis and Michelle Hand. Ms. Lewis is comically pinch-faced as a two-time widow who can't stop bossing her dead husbands around. She's equally trustworthy in a variety of other roles of more expansive mien. Elsewhere, she's wonderful taking us on a tour of a kitchen garden at sunrise. Ms. Hand pours out the truest heart-break in a song of lost loves, woven through all the comic fragments of this day in Wales.
Ms. Wienke is at her most endearing as a gypsy girl, and Mr. Ruprecht-Belt shines as a farmer who's terrified of his own cows. The entire cast (save for Jack Hake) is delirious in an astonishing bit of poetry about a visit to a colorful candy shop.
Mr. Hake is relegated to a corner chair as a blind sea captain, keeping track of everything by sound alone. We would miss him, and his stoicism, if he weren't there. In fact, his sightless sea captain may be the luckiest blind man on Earth: living where everyone talks like Dylan Thomas-who needs eyes?
The pace picks up considerably once the sun rises, then slows again near bed-time. Finally, Colin Nichols, who has been a ghostly husband (among other Milk Woodians) is riveting as the town's Reverend Jenkins giving an evening prayer. The villagers hum at his feet, like blood rushing bright with brandy in the nuzzling darkness.
Dylan Thomas would have said it much better, no doubt.
(In fact, he does, through Mr. Nichols, as Reverend Jenkins: “Praise the Lord, we are a musical nation.”)
Under Mr. Callahan's direction, this “play for voices” has just enough physical movement to keep things lively, and nicely avoids preciousness with its fantasies of homicide; and songs; and dangerous cows. Honesty demands that I mention that four of the ten cast members (Ms. Doggett, Mr. Lavazzi, Mr. Higgins, Mr. Ruprecht-Belt, and even Mr. Callahan) are on-air volunteers here at KDHX. But I cannot hold that against them, for obvious reasons.
Through January 29th (2006) in the Union Avenue Christian Church at Union and Enright, a block north of Delmar. An encore performance is planned at the Welsh pub, Dressel's in the Central West End, on February 3rd. For information, call (314) 367-0025 or visit them on line at www.westendplayers.org.
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