Celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the beloved classic Under Milk Wood, award-winning solo performer Guy Masterson brings Dylan Thomas’ most famous and enduring work to Wilton’s Music Hall for one week only.
Inspired by his uncle, Richard Burton, who led the first broadcast on the BBC World Service in January 1954, in 1993, Masterson, brought the entire work to vivid life on stage, by himself, and has since performed it over 2000 times all around the world over 30 years.
All 69 of Dylan Thomas’ wonderfully quirky inhabitants of the fictional Welsh village Llareggub, from Blind Captain Cat to Rosie Probert and the Reverend Eli Jenkins, are assiduously recreated in an amazing feat of memory and physical virtuosity.
In the 70 years since Thomas’ early death in New York, his position in the cultural hall of fame has become firmly established. The favoured poet of rock stars, actors and King Charles III, Thomas inspired Bob Dylan’s choice of stage name and his image appeared on the cover of The Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Under Milk Wood has never been out of print since first publication in 1954 and it has been filmed at least four times. International Dylan Thomas Day is held each year on 14th May, the anniversary of the date when Under Milk Wood was first read on stage at 92Y The Poetry Centre in New York in 1953.
Guy Masterson is a multi-award winning actor, playwright, director and producer best known for his solo performances of classic works of literature. Guy began solo performing in 1991 with The Boy’s Own Story and thence Under Milk Wood in 1994 and Animal Farm in 1995. He first produced/directed in 1993 with Playing Burton and he went on to direct two of Edinburgh’s biggest grossing hits 12 Angry Men and The Odd Couple (2005) both starring Bill Bailey, and he originated One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (2004) with Christian Slater and Mackenzie Crook. He won an Olivier Award for his production of Morecambe in 2010, and his 2019 hit, The Shark Is Broken opened in the West End in October 2022 and was Olivier Award nominated for Best New Comedy.
Under Milk Wood is at Wilton’s Music Hall 9th – 13th May, 2023
