Under Milk Wood

Kevin Allen's 'Under Milk Wood' opens in UK cinemas later this week. - starring Charlotte Church as Polly Garter and Rhys Ifans as Captain Cat. I am looking forward to seeing it. After 'Left Field' is published I am going to re-write my Dylan Thomas comedy - 'Spitting at the Sky' - first performed as a professional reading at the Dylan Thomas Festival in Swansea in 2004. I was a friend of the art critic, Mervyn Levy, who went to school with Dylan. He told me that the two of them shared a flat in Chelsea in the 30s and loved going to Marx Brothers films. They acted out the parts when they got home. He also told me that Thomas had been interred in Macy's morgue in NYC. Knowing this I set the play in Macy's and introduced Dylan to the Marx Brothers there. The cast in Swansea included Sion Probert, Stan Stennett, Liz Morgan and my friend, Anna Gilbert. John Yorke, then Head of Drama at Channel 4, commented: “a powerful and beautifully written piece of theatre, and I have to say that your mastery of language isn't far off Thomas' himself.” 

Spitting into the Sky

Comments on my Dylan Thomas play, performed at a professional reading at the DT Festival in 2004

John Yorke, Head of Drama, BBC TV

A powerful and beautifully written piece of theatre, and I have to say that your mastery of language isn't far off Thomas' himself. I thought you did an excellent job of interweaving between the man himself and the world of the plays and the poems, and adding the Marx Brothers into the brew lent a wonderfully surreal tone.

Terry Johnson, Director 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' & playwright: 

I read ‘Spitting Into the Sky’ and I loved its imaginative spiralling. I loved the setting and the theatrical gifts it allows you to indulge. I love the idea of the Marx Brothers taking us through the play: I think the language is grand, and worthy of the man. I think it's very good.

Stephen Hearst, Former Controller BBC radio 3

It brings Dylan Thomas to life, warts and all, particularly his relationship to Caitlin. The word plays are good and true. A very original piece of work.. 

(drawing of Dylan Thomas by my friend Mervyn Levy. He was a childhood friend of the poet and, had he lived, we would have written this play together)

More on this and other plays in Left Field