The Watermill Theatre in Newbury has announced casting for Dylan Thomas’ comic masterpiece Under Milk Wood, A Play for Voices… which will run from 25 October to 4 November 2017, with a press night on 26 October.
Actor and impressionist Alistair McGowan will lead the company in the new production which forms part of the theatre’s 50th-anniversary programme: Under Milk Wood was 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. It is the penultimate professional production of The Watermill Theatre’s 50th anniversary year.
Ahead of Under Milk Wood, 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 London’s Park Theatre on 28 September until 21 October.
