At Least Afloat

★★★★★

St Valentine’s Day, salt on the wound of the freshly broken-hearted, or an opportunity to reclaim the financially-perverted holiday back into be a celebration of not merely the one Significant Other, but the several Kindred Spirits. To celebrate one’s community, as in the days of the Renaissance. Be reminded that we live in a society, with all its rich facets.

A society in all its rich facets, such a one as EUTC’s Llareggyb.

Myself and my friends found ourselves at the University of Edinburgh’s Bedlam Theatre not from any serious following of Dylan Thomas, alas, but out of a newfound devotion, from persons who shall remain nameless, to Daniel J. Bryant (Singin’ in the Rain, EUSOG, 2025). This comic genius led us to discover the bizarre whimsy that was Thomas’ 1954 radio drama, refitted for the stage. Bella Burgess, dressed as would the Welsh Bard himself, arrived, and carried the remainder of the tale as the tide. There was much salt, much blue, much verve within the words of Thomas, given absolute justice by the prime narrator. Slowly, each character filtered on, their silhouettes cut from their dreams, their caricatures illuminated with the morning sun (I hope it wiped its feet, Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard), their portraits complete by the dusk.

We met Captain Cat, beset by the ghosts of past, sleeping and waking, a blind man who hears all, played to heart-rending perfection by Rufus Goodman. Ella Peattie gurned and grinned as the wolfish Mr Waldo, the mad Lord Cut-Glass, and an assortment of other most motley characters. Bibi Benson waltzed between her roles as the mysterious Mrs Dai Bread Two and the obsessive Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard, just as elegantly as Lily Norris Dugdale switched between the town “fancy woman” and the proprietor of the Sailor’s Arms, Sinbad. Sinbad Sailors, the lovelorn for the lovely schoolma’am Miss Beynon (Juliet Gentle), as the besotted Mr Evans (Hal Hobson) is for eager Miss Price (Georgia Thomas). There is one crucial difference between this unsanctioned sighing and that of the epistolary novel being written between the draper and the sweetshop keeper, and that is their separation is a socioeconomic one, not a selfish-economic one. To so fine an end did Willy Nilly (Spoons) weave assiduously between the simple set of Leon Lee, his letters freshly unsteamed from the efforts of himself and his Missus (the marvelous Miss Thomas once again) to keep abreast of the times (and Times).

To so fine an end also did Mrs Organ-Morgan (Olivia Dale) hold court outside her shop, as the man himself (Bryant) did her ears in with his constant practice.

Dan Bryant was unmatched as the undertaker, outstanding as the organ master, murderous as Mr. Pugh, but it was as Rev. Eli Jenkins (based off of the author’s own beloved uncle) that he brought tears to my eyes, of mirth, and moving. Life’s rich tapestry, presented in the humming humdrum shenanigans of a most frank, most isolated, Welsh village was edified in verse at break and close of day, presented to us as a stout punch, and wrapped around our lonely, aching hearts as a blanket.

Community, friends, community. We are all just one such square in a patchwork quilt, imperfect, necessary, and beautiful.

This was a very human work that the Production Team, Cast, and Crew ought to be very proud of. A celebration of people, and of story-telling. Neither myself nor my friends found any fault with it. It was cohesively performed, with love, with fun, with sensitivity, and that makes it peerless.

If you have the chance to go and see Under Milk Wood, the last show is on tonight at 7.30pm at the Bedlam Theatre, 11b Bristo Place, EH1 1EZ. Tickets can be purchased here.