‘Dylan’ @ The Classics Theatre Project
—Jan Farrington
Where to begin—with the play, or the random thoughts it sparked in me even before the first lines were spoken?
Okay, me first.
Dylan Thomas, for the uninitiated, was a Welsh poet who died young (age 39) in 1953, almost literally brined in liquor. He was a literary phenom and golden boy of the 1940s—a ringing, resonant voice on the radio—whose rhythmic, word-rich poems were like catnip to a generation of listeners and readers.
Me, in freshman year high school English Lit (c. 1965), arguing with Sister Mary Sharon over the two poets who made the hair stand up on my head: Walt Whitman and Dylan Thomas. She was gently amused by my passion.
Thomas’ fame didn’t last long at that Taylor Swift level. Only a decade or so after the poet’s death, Simon and Garfunkel made him a chuckle line in a song: “He’s so unhip that when you say Dylan / He thinks you’re talkin’ about Dylan Thomas / Whoever he was.”
Does the Byronic, boozing, brawling poet thing still sell well these days? After a few generations of side-eyes in their direction, these guys (and yes, like turtles, it’s virtually all men, all the way down) are held more disapprovingly to account for their personal faults and “foibles.” Still, there was a hefty crowd on opening weekend for Sidney Michael’s 1964 bio-play Dylan, presented by The Classics Theater Project at Core Theatre’s Richardson stage space.
A sizzling performance can go a long way, and TCTP artistic director Joey Folsom as Dylan Thomas is compellingly watchable, even to one who keeps wondering why his put-upon wife Caitlin (a fiery Rhonda Sue Rose) doesn’t just throw him into the sea—so temptingly located near their damp, half-wrecked Welsh shack. The problems are: a) the once posh and artsy Caitlin also was an out-of-control drinker and brawler; and b) the couple had a cluster of young children at home. Someone needed to survive.
The play covers the last few years of the poet’s life, and centers on several trips Thomas made to the U.S.—to read his poems on the radio and in large halls, many of them on college campuses. He hoped to make enough money to lift the family from poverty for a time. Sometimes he succeeded (a collection of poems was very popular); other times he returned essentially broke. He became ever more famous and in-demand during the early 1950s, but the dinner-and-drinks social circuit of those American tours accelerated the breakdown of his health, and make it almost impossible to write new works—with the exception of his “play for voices” Under Milk Wood, Thomas’ remembrance of a happy time on an old fam in the Welsh countryside. (Desperately ill, he performed the play several times in the weeks before his death in November 1953.)
The well-cast actors portray supporters and companions (enablers, one might say) of Thomas’ American journeys, including concerned fellow poet and tour-arranger John Malcolm Brinnin (Andrew Manning); intrigued, tempted literary editor Meg (Paige Brantley); a seen-it-all bartender (Louis Shopen); some flirty American ladies (Madyson Manning); and stalwart Anthony Magee as more than one older Welshman.
Director Jason Craig West is dealing with a very episodic play—the scene-to-scene moving and rearrangement of the show’s large wooden set piece (stairs, doors, landings) easily adds a half-hour to the run time—but West manages to keep the energy reasonably high. Dylan and Caitlin’s wrangles and rants, and their strong physicality, hold our attention—and both sustain impressive Welsh accents to boot. The scattered moments when actors recite some of Thomas’ poems are too few and far-between, but they’re done beautifully by Folsom, Rose, and Magee.
Last item for my list (above) on poets and fame: In the Wikipedia entry for Dylan Thomas, the small photo at top is not of Dylan Thomas. It’s Welsh actor Richard Burton—whose readings of Thomas’ poems I highly recommend if you’d like to discover, or remember, his work. Funny? Yes, a bit—and sad.
WHEN: September 13-October 5, 2024
WHERE: performed at Core Theatre in Richardson TX
WEB: theclassicstheatreproject.com
