Review – UNDER MILK WOOD at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, from Monday, May 12 to Saturday, May 17, 2014.

THIS wonderfully evocative look at post-war life in a small Welsh harbour town is an absolute treat and a fitting tribute with which to mark the centenary of Dylan Thomas’ birth in 1914.

It’s also the 60th anniversary of the play’s British première on BBC Radio with Thomas having managed to complete it not long before his death.

He’d only half-completed the play, more a mix of plays, in 1951. He tinkered with it, left it, and eventually returned to it - thankfully. At one point he referred to it as this “infernally eternally unfinished” play. But finish it he did and it provides sublime storytelling - giving us a host of colourful characters stirred together in a mad-cap mix of mirth, mischief and melancholy.

In the safe and capable hands of former Royal Shakespeare Company director Terry Hands who has energised a cast of 11 who are all at home with Dylan’s literary gems and each other, there is a sheer vibrancy about this production which helps it to deliver so rewardingly.

Dollops of humour also prevail in Llareggub, where the eccentric folk are not quite as backward as their town (check it out for yourself!) as they shower us with a torrent of Dylan’s delightful prose.

Their day to day lives – or rather a day in their lives, and their hopes and dreams, as we encounter blind Captain Cat, Mog Edwards the draper and his sweetheart Miss Price, Evans the Death, landlord Sinbad Sailor and others, and especially Polly Garter, the single mum with a handful of children, is blissfully amusing.

Poor Polly has a lot on her plate and bemoans: “Nothing grows in our garden, only washing and babies”.

There’s also Lord Cut Glass, Mrs Willy Nilly and Dai Bread and Mrs Dai Bread One and Two, offering a slice of life that could have been occurring in any seaside town around the British Isles 60 years ago. And it might even be mirrored today say in places such as Looe or Maryport to pluck two names out of the air.

The words woven from the heart are skillfully delivered by the mainly barefooted cast of this Clwyd Theatr Cymru presentation which is a real team effort.

As might be expected of an all-Welsh cast they can sing and this is one Welsh Assembly welcome at any time over the border!

First and Second Voice – Owen Teale and Christian Patterson – eloquently lead the way into the rich and fertile areas Dylan has provided but all have their moments in the ‘dream of night and the rhythm of the day’.

Steven Meo ensures his character collection is quite memorable and at one point his comic talent rendered Teale almost speechless as he tried to stifle his laughter. Richard Elfyn’s would-be-poisoner Pugh can also be commended but it would be unfair to single anyone out from the star quality on view.

The cast, apart from Teale in tweed jacket and Patterson in blue, are dressed in shades of brown and green which allows them to seamlessly switch their multiple roles on a circular set design that replicated the fishing harbour of Martyn Bainbridge's aerial 3D set of the town. Excellent and eye-catching!

If you have a love of language and storytelling then this is a verbal joy to savour.