The stage is dark. A man and woman stand at opposite sides of the platform and begin to speak. Slowly, carefully, they paint a picture for the audience of a sleepy town, somewhere along the coast.
Over the next 70 minutes, the audience is invited to watch a small town come to life, to laugh and share heartache with its various characters.
Rhys Bevan John’s “Under Milkwood” is both riveting and intimate. Jeremy Webb and Susan Stackhouse, the stars of “Under Milkwood,” played multiple roles, both male and female. Sometimes, they played multiple characters within the scene, which was a treat to watch.
While the level of description made it clear that “Under Milkwood” was a radio play once, Webb and Stackhouse brought it to life on stage with engaging characters and unique facial expressions unique to each of those characters.
Some notable characters were Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard, who instructed her deceased husbands to tell her their daily routines. Her husbands’ lists of things to do, such as “take the pyjamas… out of the drawer labelled pyjamas” were quite entertaining to listen to.
Mr. Pugh and Mrs. Pugh were, again, highly entertaining, particularly when Stackhouse would say “It is bad manners to nod off at the table” and Webb would describe poisoning his wife, only to pause and say, “You know best, dear.”
Webb and Stackhouse were delightful to watch and kept the play flowing, making it so the audience did not notice 70 minutes go by. Overall, the play was fun to attend and quirky in its characterization of a small town and its inhabitants.
