This week, Oxford Playhouse proudly welcomes back Olivier Award-winner Guy Masterson for a one-night-only performance of his globally acclaimed solo adaptation of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood. Masterson – director of the West End and Broadway hit The Shark is Broken, which launched its UK tour at Oxford Playhouse in January – returns to the city with this enchanting production for the third time in thirty years.
First presented in 1994 as a tribute to his late uncle, Richard Burton, Masterson’s version of Under Milk Wood brings a special piece of Playhouse history back to the city. Burton, who famously appeared at The Playhouse in 1966 alongside his wife Elizabeth Taylor in a student production of Dr Faustus, originally introduced Masterson to the epic poem while on a road-trip from London to Switzerland in 1981.
“We’re driving along somewhere between Paris and Geneva,” Masterson recalls, “and suddenly he perks up with, ‘Listen to this… ‘To begin at the beginning!’. And so, started my lifelong obsession with the words of Dylan Thomas.” At the time, Masterson was studying Biochemistry at Cardiff University. “He changed everything! Until then, I thought my life would be spent in fluorescent-lit laboratories – not playing some of the loveliest theatres in the world!”
Burton’s own journey with Oxford Playhouse began in 1944 while studying at Exeter College, Oxford. During that period, he performed in the Oxford University Dramatic Society’s memorable production of Measure for Measure, famously attended by John Gielgud. Eighty years on, Masterson honours the legacies of both Thomas and Burton as he steps once more onto the same historic stage.
“I can’t imagine my life without Burton’s introduction to Under Milk Wood – just as I can’t imagine Dylan Thomas becoming as celebrated as he was without Burton’s original recording in 1953.” A version well-known to me as I studied Under Milk Wood at school.
In this captivating solo performance, Masterson brings to life all 69 of Thomas’ vibrant characters, conjuring the beauty and humour of a day-in-the-life of the fictional Welsh fishing village of Llareggub. Blending masterful storytelling with evocative physical performance and a haunting soundscape by composer Matt Clifford, Masterson breathes fresh life into one of the most enduring works of 20th-century literature.
Tickets for Under Milk Wood at Oxford Playhouse start from £14 and are available from Box Office: 01865 305305 or online at www.oxfordplayhouse.com
