The September '99 production,
featuring The Windfall Dancers:
Click on image above for a
glowing review
of the 9/99 Production
at the
John Waldon Arts Center
Bloomington, Indiana
(Home of Indiana University)
"... when I go to the theatre, I expect miracles. I fully believe
that characters will appear, stories will be told, mysteries
raveled and unraveled ... despite incredible odds and
usually only part of the time, it happens. Saturday night’s
performance of Under Milk Wood ... was one of those
happenings."
-- George Walker, WFIU
"Windfall Dancers' most ambitious, remarkable collaboration was
September's Under Milk Wood ... From ghosts to murder
to evening revels, the show dramatized Thomas' surreal poetry
with striking movement, lively music, and bold staging."
-- Naomi Ritter, Bloomington Independent
"In spite of their myriad quirks, the residents of
Llareggub are colorful characters who inspire laughter
and love more than loathing in this sometimes shadowy,
yet always light-hearted production."
-- The Indianapolis Star
Click
HERE for color pictures.
Ghosts of drowned sailors nuzzle up to Captain Cat in his dreams
to ask about the living world
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"Who milks the cows in Maesgwyn?" asks one
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"When she smiles, is there dimples?" asks another
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Overwhelmed, Captain Cat cries "Oh my dead dears!"
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Click on any image to see an enlargement.
Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard awakens her dead husbands
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"Less than 500 souls inhabit this ... backwater of life," says the tour guide
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Tourists look down their noses at Llareggub
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"See that smudge on the wall? That's where you threw the Sago!"
Says Mrs. Cherry Owen. "You only missed me by an inch."
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Click on any image to see an enlargement.
"... and then I got you into bed -- and you snored all night like a brewery."
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The town postman, has already read the letter he delivers to Mrs. Pugh
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The children of Llarregub sing about "Johnnie Crack and Flossie Snail,"
who "kept their baby in a milking pail."
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Sinbad Sailors draws a pint at the sunlit bar of The Sailors Arms
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Click on any image to see an enlargement.
Mog Edwards confides his love for Myfanwy Price -- but never sees her in person
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Dai Bread's wives hold a seance. "Now there's two women in bed," says the gypsy.
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The ghost of Rosie Probert visits her one true love for the last time.
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At the end of the day, the residents of Llareggub go back to sleep.
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Click
HERE for color pictures.
The Cast and Crew
for September '99 production:
Katie Alheim, Olga Goloschokin, Cara Gray, Rachel Hamilton,
Hope Hoffman, Kaira Hogle, Christina Jones, Scott Jones,
Gabriel Lewin, Kevin Mauer, Stephanie Mauer, Brad Norris, Kay Olges,
Susan Oswalt, John Palmer, Robert Ping, Soriya Pok, Timothy Reed,
Arturo Rodriguez, Erin Shrader, Danny O Snow, Harry David Snow,
Whitney Swain, Evan Wilson
Special thanks to:
Jeanette Brown of BCS; Richard Adrian Dorr of the Vocal Arts Foundation;
Margaret Fette; Bud Gilmore; Jonathan Hamel; Nancy Hellinghausen of Barnes
& Noble; John William Houghton; Laura Jesseph; Mary Kean of Berenson Isham
Partners; Karen Keri of Samuel French, Inc.; Tracey Lieberman of Actors'
Equity Association; Charles A. Loesche; The Clan MacAaron; John Mace of the
Vocal Arts Foundation; Crystal Massey of Actors' Equity Association; Rusty Meyers; Del Newkirk of the Brown County Community Foundation; Joanna Noble;
Edith O'Hara of the 13th Street Theatre; Jonathan Schwartz of Barnes & Noble;
Paul Smedberg of BCS; Jeanne L. Snow; Joy Westendarp of the International
Copyright Bureau ...
... and especially to everyone at the Windfall Dancers, the
Bloomington Area Arts Council, the Brown County Art Gallery Foundation,
and the John Waldron Arts Center!
Project Description:
Excess of sorrow laughs; excess of joy weeps.
--William Blake, Proverbs of Hell
DYLAN THOMAS gave an early draft of Under Milk Wood an apt title: The Town Was
Mad. Contrary to the traditional depiction of the setting as a quaint Welsh seaport, a careful reading
of the text suggests a very different view:
The ficticious town that Dylan Thomas named "Llareggub" is a community populated by bigamists, pedophiles, necrophiles, nymphomaniacs,
satanists, and cannibals... to name just a few of its 'colourful little eccentricities.' It is a town
where dysfunctions ranging from alcoholism to xenophobia are a way of life. Even the name
of the place is "buggerall" spelled backwards.
As one of the townsfolk remarks in a seemingly offhand way, There's a nasty lot that live
here, when you come to think. This apparently inconspicuous comment reveals
much about the subtext of the story, which has become the focus of this production.
Unlike the conventional representation of Llareggub as the kind of quaint little Welsh village
one might view in a cheerfully coloured travelogue, this production recognises the darker side
of life which lies hidden... "UNDER Milk Wood." Without diminishing the beauty of Thomas'
language, or his sense of humour, it reveals a sense of the macabre core that underlies
Llareggub's thin veneer of lovable pastoral eccentricity.
This production lands somewhere between Our Town and Deliverance, yet it is full of humour.
Yes, the audience laughs, often and loudly. What's so funny about a town full of sociopaths?
We believe that Dylan Thomas knew the answer: that life is better lived with a dark passion
than a squeaky-clean complaisance; that with all their flaws, the denizens of Llareggub are
divine creations, deserving of forgiveness and acceptance, laughter and love.
Mirroring the playwright's appeal to his audience, near the conclusion of the play, the
Reverend Eli Jenkins prays to his creator:
We are not wholly bad or good
Who live our lives under Milk Wood,
And Thou, I know, wilt be the first
To see our best side, not our worst.
Thomas' characters make us laugh, even as they engage in a myriad of sins more deadly
than those normally commited by those of us in the outside world. Why do we laugh?
Because, in spite of their sins, these outlandish characters are not so very different
from you and me.
This production forces members of the audience to interrupt their laughter and ask the
chilling question: "What are we laughing it?" And the answer may very well be:
"Ourselves."
--Jonathan Hamel
--Danny O Snow
Click
HERE to go to the front page of the Under Milk Wood website.
To request information about booking performances
of Under Milk Wood please send e-mail to:
The fine print:
All text and images © Snow & Associates
Logo by Mary Kean
Photo of Sept. '99 show by Shawn-Paul Luchin
Last updated: 15 April 2001
URL for this site:
http: // www. arch. org / windfall. htm
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