| |  (L to R) Ron Halpin, Alan Cooke, Clem Steggink, Joy Redfearn, Cherry (Sherry) Barnes, Glynn Horner, Frank Davies, Peter Comino, Jean Axam, Kym Halpin, Shirley Halpin. UNDER MILKWOOD (adapted for the Drama Festival) directed by Janet Horner. Here is the rare photo of three members of the Halpin family onstage together...Kym (seated on right) her late father Ron, our former President and Treasurer ( far left) and (standing on right) her late mother Shirley, our former Artistic Director, who left us on August 28, 2015. Written by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, it was a 1954 BBC radio drama, later adapted for stage and film. It's set in Llareggub (spell backwards to see what happens there) with a narrator inviting us to share the sleeping villagers' dreams, filled with love or hate, desire or dismay. Characters (too many to list ) include Butcher Beynon and his wife (who dreams of their being arrested for selling cat meat), Organ Morgan who is obsessed with playing music in church, Utah Watkins, the farmer who counts sheep who look like his wife, Nogood Boyo who dreams of fishing and geishas, and Mae-Rose Cottage "who dreams of sinning until she explodes." We played multiple characters and wore several layers of costumes, involving much flinging around of clothing and props in the wings. (Nigel recalls a partially clothed female cast member getting her foot stuck in a saucepan). | |
