Under Milk Wood

Overview

I'm embarrassed to admit that I never really gave Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood a chance. As a kid, a copy had sat on our bookshelf, and the cover — a watercolour of jolly milkmaids and fishermen smoking corncob pipes — stank so much of overripe whimsy that my mind had simply rejected it. But when Vanessa Hughes and Zoe Norton Lodge were kids they actually bothered to crack it open and discovered it was brilliant, labyrinthine, bawdy and dark. They have mounted an ambitious one-woman show, with a lot of video in it, down at the Sidetrack Theatre in Marrickville.

The text follows the lives of 64 inhabitants in the Welsh fishing village of Llareggub, all played by Norton Lodge. She rampages around the set for the full 90 minutes, frantically switching roles and using a limited amount of props to evoke different scenes and characters. At her best moments she has the quality of a precociously gifted and slightly touched maniac retelling you her favourite story in her bedroom.

The show has many wonderfully lyrical moments, including Captain Cat riding over the seas in a bathtub and a stirring performance of a song called 'Chimbly Sweep' at the end. Her performance did plateau a little toward the end, but I assume this was just opening night nerves and will improve as the season continues and her confidence grows.

Vanessa Hughes' set and video installations are uniformly excellent. They're simple and understated, adding to the performance rather than overpowering it. It's a very confident and accomplished production that I'm sure will have more seasons to come. If you're a fan of Under Milk Wood, I'd recommend checking it out, and even if you're not yet a fan, I was certainly converted.