Arts / Dylan’s doomed last tour

WHEN Dylan Thomas wrote of “wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight”, he could almost have been describing himself as he was when, drunk and dying, he stormed the stages of the US in 1953.

Now a one-man play, “Dylan Thomas: Return Journey”, coming to The Street and directed by, of all people, Anthony Hopkins, will bring us up close and personal to one of the world’s most empathetic poets, author of works such as “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night”, “And Death Shall Have no Dominion” and “Under Milk Wood” that have entered our common idiom.

Although Thomas wrote only in English, the rhythmical Welsh lilt of his language has made him accessible above many other poets and he is considered rare in having achieved fame, if not notoriety, during his own lifetime.

Cardiff-born actor Bob Kingdom takes the audience through Thomas’ final, doomed tour, we are promised, “without an inkling of actorliness”.

Kingdom has been living and breathing Thomas for years and was already “being” him when his fellow Welshman Hopkins, who had long wanted to play Thomas on stage or screen, caught one of Kingdom’s performances in a pub theatre and later asked if he could become his “other eye” as director. The rest is history.

“Dylan Thomas: Return Journey”, made up of readings from Thomas’ poems, stories and letters, has played to more than 80,000 people worldwide, with “The New York Times” describing the show as: “Thomas’ intense love affair with language transmitted with hypnotic beauty”.

A popular DVD has been made of the presentation, which focuses not on Thomas’ BBC radio recordings but on his fourth trip to New York in 1953, when Thomas fell into an alcohol-induced coma from which he did not recover. Kingdom/Thomas takes his audiences through Wales of the past and present, with a few sideswipes at the American touring scene and the art of acting.

Kingdom was a copywriter before he became an actor and writer, and initially exploited his gift for mimicry by writing commercials for which he knew he could do the voices. This took him far afield and he has been seen portraying Truman Capote, Stan Laurel, Elsa Maxwell and J. Edgar Hoover. He also paints portraits, some of which are on permanent display at the Radisson Hotel on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile and in London at Orsini’s Restaurant opposite the Victoria and Albert Museum.

As befits an actor-director, Hopkins’ approach has been described as “minimalist”, allowing Kingdom to relate closely to the audience as, taking on the persona of Thomas, he rages against “the dying of the light”.

“Dylan Thomas: Return Journey”, with Bob Kingdom, at The Street, July 21-25, bookings to thestreet.org.au or 6247 1223.

The post Arts / Dylan’s doomed last tour appeared first on Canberra CityNews.