Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Time passes…Sitting back in a chair inside Waterstones on a Tuesday afternoon and listening to an expert from the University of Liverpool and one of the finest Welsh actors talk of Dylan Thomas’ seminal Under Milk Wood, it is possible to contemplate on what the townsfolk of Llareggub may have thought of all the adulation being bestowed upon a man who created them in this the 100th anniversary of the poet, writer, thinker and pondering wordsmith’s birth.
In conjunction with the Liverpool Playhouse Theatre hosting the company of Clwyd Theatre as they give a sterling and utterly inventive performance of Under Milk Wood and Waterstones book shop own free talks on the classics of English literature, Dr. Chris Williams of the University of Liverpool and actor Owen Teale gave the assembled audience a rare privileged insight into the life of Dylan Thomas and what the world of Llareggub means to them.
The first in the new series of readings saw Dr. Chris Williams give a fascinating and enlightening talk on Dylan Thomas, his life and perhaps more notably his death in America, for which many wrongly believe certain truths about the last few days and in particular the manner of his passing. What came across from Dr. Williams was that truth sometimes gets shrouded in myth and the legend is sometimes more easily accepted. Such as in the people and townsfolk that reside in the small Welsh town and for whom many are just as real as the person you may live with, argue over a late night Scotch with night after night or even write love letters to knowing they will never be answered, the legend of Under Milk Wood is just astounding.
Actor Owen Teale, who is playing Voice One at the Playhouse Theatre, also spoke lovingly of the work of Dylan Thomas and thrilled the audience with a couple of much loved lines from the play, as well as explaining why the work has not just endured but is rightly regarded as a classic.
Sometimes time passes for a reason and in the company of fellow Thomas admirers and perhaps even those who want to gain more insight into why the play for voices is arguably considered one of the most important works in the English language in the last 100 years, then to have been at Waterstones, to take out of the day and think fondly of Dai Bread, Polly Garter, Mr. and Mrs. Pugh and No Good Boyo is one that was both enthralling and educational.
For further talks in the Lunch Time Classics at Waterstones, which will include expert readings on Philip K. Dicks Exegenesis, Walter Scotts’ Waverly and Horace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto, go to enquiries.liverpoolone@waterstones.com or call 0151 7099820.
Ian D. Hall