Adventures in the skin trade

Transcription

VCE Theatre Studies Unit 4
Adventures in the Skin Trade
A Theatr lolo Production
Presented by the Arts Centre Melbourne’s Performances
Program 2015
Resources prepared by Sam Mackie
Starting Points – About this resource
These notes have been designed with a specific focus on the key skills and knowledge for VCE Theatre
Studies, Outcome 4.3 and End-of-Year Written Examination. I have endeavored to provide detailed tables of
information that can be the building blocks for further exploration. Teachers should critically study them. As
with all theatre what happens one night may not happen the next; that’s why we love it. Consequently,
some descriptions may vary to the students’ experience. That’s a good thing too; it encourages them to
focus on their own recollections and interpretations. These are not the answers. They are just one person’s
gathering of materials and ideas, combined with his reading of the play and performance. The aim was to
give everyone a few starting points.
Sam Mackie
Contents
ABOUT ‘Adventures in the Skin Trade’
3
ABOUT Theatre Iolo - the cast and crew
4
Adventures into Dylan Thomas – life and words
6
Adventures into the Writing Trade – an interview with playwright Lucy Gough
10
Adventures into Outcome 4.3-
18
Adventures into character -
18
Adventures into the actors’ interpretation
19
Adventures into the actors’ expressive skills
20
Adventures into the actors, focus and the acting space
20
Adventures into the actors and language
21
Adventures into actors, direction and design
22
Adventures into the actor-audience relationship
23
Adventures into actors, styles & conventions
25
Adventures into the cast – actors and the characters they play
27
Adventures into the written examination
31
Appendixes:
Appendix 1 – script/production breakdown in detail (with pics)
(separate attachment)
Appendix 2 – Lucy Gough – essay on adapting Dylan Thomas for the stage
32
Appendix 3 – Adventrues in review
37
ADVENTURES IN THE SKIN TRADE –
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About Adventures in the Skin Trade
Adventures in the Skin Trade – produced by Theatr Iolo.
Dramatised by Lucy Gough from the novel by Dylan Thomas.
In the novel there is something inherently dramatic, propulsive, alluringly comical.
… the borderline-absurdist scenarios, part dreamscape, part poetic whimsy, part
hero’s journey, part coming-of-age tale’ (Nicholls, 2014)
Samuel Bennet leaves his home in South Wales to pursue a career in London. He sets out with an
attitude of reckless, nihilistic purpose but encounters a nightmarish city. A room full of furniture, an
assortment of bizarre characters and an embarrassing first sexual experience in a cold bath.
Join Samuel as he meanders through this dreamlike world, all with a beer bottle stuck on his little
finger. Dylan Thomas’s gloriously surreal coming-of-age and unfinished novel is given new life by
acclaimed writer, Lucy Gough in a special production for the Thomas centenary.
Approximate running time: 1 hour & 40 minutes 40
minute
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About Theatr Iolo
Theatr Iolo is an award-winning theatre company, which for over twenty-five years has
delivered witty, bittersweet and powerfully magical performances in schools, nurseries,
village halls, community centres, theatres, forests, streets, playgrounds and even a cowshed
in Austria. They have performed all over Wales and the UK, and internationally across Europe,
Russia and Korea. This is their first tour to Australia as they bring Adventures in the Skin Trade
to Sydney and Melbourne with the support of Wales Arts International
Their vision is to share stories for a lifetime:
Although our roots lie in theatre for children and young people, our work is relevant to all ages. A person’s first
experience of Theatr Iolo at six months old will hopefully be the first of many throughout their lifetime. We see
beauty in fragility and tell bittersweet stories that transport you and lift you. We think and feel about things
deeply, and we invite you to do the same. We don’t shy away from difficult issues.
Our productions are brave enough to go to darker and more though-provoking places. They are truthful and
compelling with an understated, quiet strength. We believe that as long as we are unflinching in the way we
present the truth, our stories will always be relevant. Questions are welcomed and everyone’s opinion counts.
We don’t always do things in the conventional way. We promise to give you spellbinding stories for modern
times and for all to enjoy.
Taken and ever so slightly tweaked from their website - http://www.theatriolo.com/?q=content/about-us
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Credits for Adventures in the Skin Trade
Cast:
Samuel Bennet
Oliver Wood
Mr Allingham/Sam’s Father ..
Richard Nicholls
Mr George Ring/Ron ..
Matthew Bulgo
Harpies: characters including:
Mrs Dacey/Sam’s mother
Jenny Livsey
Polly/Sam’s sister
Ceri Elen
Rosa/barmaid/furcoat
Ceri Ashe
Director:
Kevin Lewis
Writer:
Lucy Gough
Designer:
Neil Davies
Lighting Designer:
Jane Lalljee
Composer:
John Norton
Stage Manager:
Jacqui George
Movement Director:
Jem Treays
Acknowledgement – all pictures of the production in this document are courtesy of the Theatr Iolo
website and screen shots from their production Video.
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Adventures into Dylan Thomas – life and words
Barmaid – What’s his name?
Narrator – Young Thomas
Barmaid - … what’s he look like?
Narrator – He’d be about seventeen or eighteen …
Barmaid – … I was seventeen once …
Narrator - … and above medium height. Above medium height for Wales, I mean, he’s five foot six
and a half. Thick blubber lips; snub nose; curly mouse brown hair; one front tooth broken after
playing a game called Cats and Dogs, in the Mermaid, Mumbles; speaks rather fancy; truculent;
plausible; a bit of a shower-off; plus-fours and no breakfast, you know; used to have poems printed in
the Herald of Wales … lived up the Uplands; a bombastic adolescent provincial Bohemian with a thick
knotted artist’s tie made out of his sister’s scarf, she never knew where it had gone, and a cricket
shirt dyed bottle green; a gabbing, ambitious, mock tough, pretentious young man; and mole-y too.
(taken from Return Journey)
It seems more than appropriate to use words and not pictures to introduce Dylan Marlais Thomas such is his
passion for them and skill with them. Better still to use his words. They are part of a short scripted piece (part
short story, part play) where the narrator returns home to Swansea to find someone he hadn’t seen for
fourteen years … himself.
Last year Wales celebrated the centenary of the birth of one of their favourite sons. Tragically, his death came
too soon, for in New York at the age of 39 he collapsed, ‘under the stain of drink, drugs and overwork passing
into a coma on the 5th of November 1953, and dying 4 days later’ ((Observer, 30/10/1966). It is a tragic irony
that after his last drinking session soon before collapsing he is said to have returned to his hotel in Chelsea and
declared "I've had 18 straight whiskies. I think that's the record!"
To the theatre world Thomas is most remembered for ‘Under Milkwood’, a
radio play which has been presented on stage (and turned into a major
film) numerous times internationally. This ‘play for voices’ follows twenty
four hours in the dreams and lives of the small fictional Welsh sea side
village of Llareggub (see if you are quicker than me to work it out). The
iconic First Voice opening monologue captures so much of Thomas’ poetic
style:
[Silence]
FIRST VOICE (Very softly)
To begin at the beginning:
It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless
and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched,
courters'-and-rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the
sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboatbobbing sea.
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The houses are blind as moles (though moles see fine to-night
in the snouting, velvet dingles) or blind as Captain Cat
there in the muffled middle by the pump and the town clock,
the shops in mourning, the Welfare Hall in widows' weeds.
And all the people of the lulled and dumbfound town are
sleeping now …
Respected theatre critic Kenneth Tynan captured Thomas’ ability as a wordsmith: “He conscripts metaphors,
rapes the dictionary and builds a verbal bawdy-house where words mate and couple on the wing, like swifts.
Nouns dress up, quite unself-consciously, as verbs, sometimes balancing three-tiered epithets on their heads
and often alliterating to boot.” (Why Under Milkwood is the greatest radio play ever. Rees, J., Telegraph –
April, 2015). Indeed, one obituary suggested that for Thomas, ‘words were the jewellery that he scattered
before him in cascades of sparkling brilliance (Connor, W., Daily Mirror, December, 1953). The town and
characters of LLareggub had festered and fostered in Thomas’ mind and work for over twenty years. He very
much saw the village of his own childhood, a source of so much of his writing. In Adventures in the Skin Trade
we get the likes of Rosy Probert and Polly (Garter) by name. But Samuel Bennet eschews a lot of No Good
Boyo and Mrs Dacey, George Ring and Donald Allingham would not be out of place in Bethesda or the ‘Four
Ales’ where the clock stopped and it has been 5 minutes before closing time, forever.
SP – listen to Richard Burton and others reading ‘Under Milkwood’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuPO2Kvqlms&list=PLf07g921KbdKem7IuuKf8iabl5KwvOKrb )
But in the literary world Thomas is remembered for his poetry and it began when he was a child. He would nag
his sisters to give him something to write about and when directed to the kitchen sink, did so and did it well.
He wrote poems in the school magazines, kept extensive notebooks, and had his first published work "And
death shall have no dominion," which appeared on May 8, 1933, in the New English Weekly. Thomas was only
19.
And death shall have no dominion.
Dead man naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.
SP – Hear the poem in full read by Thomas himself on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruh7uQ9hSQk and
follow links to others, including his most famous poem, written to his dying father, ‘Do Not Go Gently into
That Good Night’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2cgcx-GJTQ&spfreload=10 )
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His early poems were predominantly about love and sex, adolescence or childhood. Like Samuel Bennet, this
Welsh schoolboy had a preoccupation with himself and would not be influenced by anybody. He would not be
moulded or educated. He was always a highly individual stylist. Sound was as important as sense in his
poems—some would even say more important. He made ample use of alliteration, assonance, internal rhyme,
and approximate rhyme.
When twenty two year old Thomas’ second book of poetry, Twenty-Five Poems, was published in 1936, highly
respected poet and critic Edith Sitwell proclaimed prophetically, ‘I could not name one poet of this, the
youngest generation, who shows so great a promise, and even so great an achievement.’ (Sunday Times,
November, 1936).
Many critics heard the playful references to all forms of his writing, living out his childhood in diverse
manifestations. Indeed one critic suggests that it was not just his inspiration, it was the place he continued to
dwell in and what gave him such a voice.
His short stories have taken a back seat in being recognised for their literary merit, despite being equally
admired; he had been writing prose since his early years. There are many clues in style, theme and content in
the stories that precede Adventures in the Skin Trade. In ‘The Peaches’, from the autobiographical Portrait of
an Artist as a Young Dog (1940), where a young Dylan visits his aunt’s farm, one critic saw the conflict in the
narrative ‘through the juxtaposition of characters, the opposition of images, and the variation of pace and
tempo, Thomas unifies his story and clarifies the conflict between imaginative life and dull existence’
(Mosher, H.F., Studies in Short Fiction).
SP – Discuss how these terms, both literary and dramatic – juxtaposition (contrast), pace/tempo (timing),
conflict, and the presentation of the real and the imaginative, applies to Theatr Iolo’s production and more
specifically the acting in it)
‘One Warm Saturday’ story depicts the conflict between the imaginative dreams of love and the real world of
pain and confusion. In an introduction to a collection of all his stories, colleague and friend Leslie Norris saw
prose as a chance to ‘abandon the interior universe of his adolescent work and create a world more like the
world around him’ (Thomas, D., Collected Stories, 1983). Leslie saw the introduction of humour as the most
important element to his style (that included ‘his sense of place, his fine ear for speech, his eye, appreciative
and unjudging, for the people he creates’ (ibid)) and the distinction between his prose and poetry.
SP – Is Theatr Iolo’s Adventures in the Skin Trade a comedy? Recall moments of laughter from across the
production and try to define them. Eg Slapstick, pun, innuendo, pathos (what Leslie calls a ‘pathetic laughter
that moves us to tears’). Secondly, describe how the actor gets us to there.
Thomas was a frequent critic of his own work and at one stage described his short stories as, ‘Immature
violence, rhythmic monotony, frequent muddle-headedness, and a very much overweighted imagery that
leads often to incoherence’.
Adventures in the Skin Trade was Thomas’ uncompleted novel that was to
be “a series of 'adventures' in which the hero's 'skins' would be stripped
off one by one like a snake's until he was left in a kind of quintessential
nakedness to face the world” (Pratt, A., Dylan Thomas' Early Prose: A
Study in Creative Mythology (1970). It was begun in the summer of 1941
but only published posthumously in 1955. We are left with three
chapters/stories – ‘A Fine Beginning’, ‘Plenty of Furniture’ and ‘Four Lost
Souls’.
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One contemporary reviewer described it as having ‘something inherently dramatic, propulsive, alluringly
comical. … the borderline-absurdist scenarios, part dreamscape, part poetic whimsy, part hero’s journey, part
coming-of-age tale.’
While the narrative thread is barely there, it is the ‘rambunctious and vivid’ persona of Thomas in the guise of
Samuel Bennet and the heightened comic prose so rich with dialogue that made it an inspired choice for
director Kevin Lewis and his company to call on the skills of Lucy Gough in adapting it to the stage.
But, before I move on, here is a photo of the man himself.
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Adventures into the Writing Trade – an interview with Lucy Gough.
Here, in this riotously and kinetically imaginative Adventures in the Skin Trade she [Gough]
again finds the key to releasing the text from its own inherent ‘literariness’ and that is to treat
the text as a swirling Greek chorus, and the dialogue as high end Ealing comedy … everything
seems to exude absolutely the spirit of Thomas’ chortling, naughty, mischievous side.
(Nicholls, 2014)
Lucy Gough was invited to adapt Adventures in the Skin Trade for Theate Iolo, in preparation for the centenary
celebrations for Dylan Thomas in Wales in 2014. The production received strong critical receptions in both
Wales and London.
The production is touring Sydney and Melbourne in winter, 2015, the first time it has left the UK.
She has written extensively for television, radio and the stage, including Hollyoaks (Channel 4 - for ten years),
Doctors (BBC drama), Crossing the Bar (shortlisted for BBC Wales Writer of the Year, 1994), Hinterland
(Granada artist writing residency, California), By a Thread, and adaptations for radio and the stage of Emily
Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. She is currently a creative research fellow at Aberystwyth University.
I spoke to Lucy via Skype early in early April, 2015.
Are you Welsh?
No I’m a mixture, but I’ve spent most of my life in Wales, actually … I’m a bit of a mixture.
Well thank you so much – to start with – for being involved in this. I’m really chuffed that you could share your
time and thoughts.
I’m very keen. It’s really exciting. The company are really looking forward to coming over.
And so what is your relationship with the Theatre Iolo (Lucy)?
I’ve written a couple of plays for them before, and I’m actually writing another for them now. I’ve known
them for years. The other two plays I wrote for them I wrote a long time ago, and I’d been busy and they were
busy, and this came up and I think Kevin thought it would suit me. I absolutely loved doing it. It was such fun.
Was Dylan Thomas an important thing to you before this?
Yes. I feel like I know his work a lot better now. Obviously I was very aware of his work, and I particularly loved
some of his poetry, and I’m very interested in radio dramas, so Under Milkwood had always interested me
anyway. But I think this was much more of an insight, because I did a lot of research – I always do a lot of
research before I start writing – particularly if I’m doing an adaptation, because you need to find a new way
into it. You can’t just take the book and put legs on it. You’ve got to find an angle or a way into it and usually
research will give you that. So I read all his biographies, read all his poetry and his other work, so I feel I can
really, really understand his work now. I’m amazed at what a clever writer he was.
Can you tell me about your writing history?
I’ve been writing for about twenty years now. I’ve always written a mixture of theatre, radio and television;
that way I can earn a living, and because I love each medium for different reasons. But I started in theatre. A
lot of my plays are focussed on preoccupations for young people and that’s the sort of subject that interests
me when – not always but very often – when I write theatre. The other thing I tend to do for theatre is
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adaptation as well; not because I think it’s an easy option. I think if you do adaptation properly its harder work
than an original piece What do you think that hardness is … that difficulty?
You can’t just pick up a book and put it on legs. You’ve got to find a reason for doing an adaptation. It’s got to
have some sort of contemporary resonance, at the same time as being true to whatever book it is that you are
doing. You’ve got to be true to the author but you’ve got to bring something fresh and new to it and give it
some new life. It’s a very fine line to walk.
Were you given specific Instructions?
No. I just fell in love with Skin Trade
immediately. I felt it was a piece that would
particularly speak to young people because it’s
truthful about what it’s like to be that age. It is
honest and perceptive and has that wonderful
abandonment about it which I think young
will just totally get.
… that whole opening sequence of how he
himself to leave home, destroying his own
and memories is a fantastic way to start…
just so
very
people
forces
house
True. It’s exactly what happens. That’s why
teenagers can be so horrible to their parents.
trying to make that break and the only way to
to hate them. … I had my first kid at eighteen
think that’s why I never really stopped being a
teenager myself.
What was the story behind writing Adventures
Skin trade?
You’re
do it is
so I
for the
Kevin had been asked to do something for the
big
centenary celebrating Dylan Thomas last year
and
the Welsh Office had been involved, and as a
well
respected company in Cardiff Kevin was asked
what
they would offer. He had a conversation with me about it and he asked me to read Skin Trade and see what I
thought of it, I loved it. I felt that people probably didn’t know it very well. Most people I spoke to had never
heard of it. We felt it was the perfect one to approach, so we had an R&D with actors and the story and then
Kevin left me to it for a while. And then I panicked. It is a fantastic story and it’s very funny and it’s very
truthful and I think it’s got that edge that young people will get. But, it’s also very interior. A lot of it is very
interior thoughts.
Jumping ahead …
(paraphrased) Was there a process involving you as the writer and Theatre Iolo as the company?
We had what’s known as an R&D, a research and development period with some actors and we had a play
with them, which was great. We just played with the short story. And had fun playing with all of that. Then I
went away and wrote a script and then we had another R&D to see what was going on and how it was
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working. Then I did a second draft, and it just rolled along like that. I also got what is known as a SIP award to
enable my research at the university I teach in and with this I brought Kevin in and we worked with some of
the students I teach at Aberystwyth University, once again to play around and to look at what this new text
was doing when it was up.
That sounds like a lovely way to work.
It was perfect. The perfect situation would be for a writer to have a band of actors in their study the whole
time.
What were the joys and pitfalls of writing an adaptation in this case?
It’s important if you do an adaptation to only do one that you love. I used to be asked to do adaptations and I
would always say no because I thought it was cheating. If you have an original idea why are you doing an
adaptation? But actually having been asked to do Wuthering Heights a long time ago, I did it and discovered
what a wonderful battle it is and how rewarding it can be. It’s about that line between being absolutely
truthful to the author – in this case the added responsibility with Dylan Thomas’ centenary and bringing
something of his to life - to bring it up to date, to justify why it’s even ‘in’, why we’re even doing it, and to find
something fresh in it, or to at least make it relevant to a contemporary audience in some way or another. So
it’s a terrifying fine line. The thing with Skin Trade is that it’s very funny and his wordplay is so exquisite and so
clever. I realised when I started to try and adapt it that it’s all interior. So much of it is his interior thoughts and
whilst you could do it without that, it would have no depth. The depth was in that interior struggle Samuel
Bennet is going through. That is what was so interesting to me, and yet how the hell do you tell that? Thar’s
what I was worried about. So I wrestled with that for a long time. Then I had the idea of having the Harpies:
those exterior voices which were specifically female voices but were inside his head. I felt like I had found my
way of doing it when I found that.
To make them all the female voices of his life, starting with the women of his street, out his window, and to
carry that through: did that just slot into place easily?
That was what gave me the idea initially. I didn’t want to lose the Mrs Proberts and all the times they were
telling him off. The character was a peeping Tom, he had terrible pretensions to be a poet; he was very
insecure. All those things were different aspects of the same personality and yet they could be Mrs Probert
telling him off for peeping trough her curtains. It was almost turning everything inside out and then back
again, if that makes any sense. It was turning his interior thoughts out and also turning those exterior things
he was reflecting upon back at him. It also avoided things that these days might seem a bit outdated from
when they were written as well. Then there were the different aspects of the women, the three different
types of women he writes about in Skin Trade.
Do you feel like each of the Harpies does have a particular identity?
Sort of. I felt like there was the virgin, the whore and the mother in there all mixed up in the trinity of women:
different types at different points. That was what I was striving for but I didn’t want to make it too schematic,
too rigorous, so long as we were clear about the fact that they were always his thoughts. That’s what we
needed to get. And to understand his desire to be a poet – which I think is very close to being Dylan Thomas –
that he was scared of his own self, that he was frightened of being pretentious so he wrote this stuff and then
was always putting himself down about it. I wanted to see that, but not with the character of Samuel Bennet
saying that to himself. I just didn’t feel that would work.
Staying with that, when you saw the relationship between Samuel and the Harpies being played out, did you
see this direct engagement, with Samuel looking for them talking to them, eyeing them? It seems to me in the
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production he does that beautifully, subtly, almost through the audience, because he spends so much time
looking out to us, but as a reflection straight back to the Harpies.
There were various ways of playing it. It has to be done delicately so it’s not hammered home. But I think what
Kevin and the actors did to achieve this was brilliant...it is very clear they are his thoughts but they also can
snap back to play another character (such as Mrs Probert) a minute later, and then snap back again and we get
that they are his thoughts speaking to him again. It’s a theatrical device but I think it works.
Could you tell me about the weight of Dylan Thomas in Wales, for Welsh culture?
He’s one of our most valued, respected poets. I don’t think there would be a child in Wales who hasn’t heard
of Dylan Thomas, or who hasn’t read or heard Under Milkwood at the very least. Last year was his centenary
so there was a lot of stuff going on all over the place to celebrate him. He wrote masses of stuff. He died very
young, which was very sad, but he left a huge body of work behind. It just captures something in so many
different ways. Some of his poetry is exquisite. I
love his poetry because of the way he worked so
cleverly with words. He was a real craftsman.
I read one reviewer who praised the effortless line
between poetry and prose.
You see in Skin Trade that lack of fear about how
much you can put into a line, how poetic a line
can get. He was very brave about what he did. He
is hugely respected in Wales, and valued as a
Welsh poet.
And did his shadow hang over you as you were
tackling this project?
Yes it did, but then I’d already done an adaptation
of Wuthering Heights for Radio, and that was
everyone’s favourite novel. I lived in fear and
trembling as I did that, so I was used to being
terrified. But it was exciting as well, and once I’d
found the Harpies … It was very worrying because
we’d agreed to send off the first draft to Dylan
Thomas’ granddaughter to check that she like it
before it was finally sanctioned and I had decided
to take a risk and put the Harpies in, because I
knew it was the only way it was going to work, but
then we send it off and I’m thinking, ‘Oh no,
maybe I shouldn’t have …’ but she really liked it.
She seemed to think it was the right approach, thankfully. But it was a huge pressure.
Would you like to talk more about what it was in these stories in particular that struck you … the connection
with the youth?
Well, just that really. When he was smashing up all the china and burning his sister’s crochet, sticking it up the
chimney, and drawing all the rude pictures on his dad’s history books … it was just brilliant. This understanding
of the struggle that teenagers go through, I thought was very clever. Then that journey to London and that
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whole new world that he has to enter. There’s a real fragility and vulnerability. Although it’s very funny and
quite robust in some ways, there is a real undercurrent of vulnerability, and I felt that not only reflected
adolescence but also reflected what I think Dylan Thomas probably felt. He was probably like that all his life
actually. There were a lot of insecurities that were going on in that writing which I think came through, and
very interesting, and gave you a new take on everything, as well as being ridiculously funny and irreverent in
wonderful ways. I loved the irreverence. I loved the wildness about the stories and the surreality of it all.
Is there something particularly Welsh about it?
It’s quite hard to answer that one. Certainly the language, the poetic language. The lack of fear of use of poetic
words. Wales has a wonderfully rhythmic language and I don’t think they’re afraid of the poetry of language,
ever. And a wonderful ability to … I don’t know how to describe it … phrase things, describe things. But I think
it is beautifully characteristic of Wales but I couldn’t really tell you why.
How important was it to go to London for a 17-18 year old? Is that a natural ambition for many youngsters?
Most definitely. It’s that severing of the ties and going on a big adventure and especially when Dylan was
writing London must have felt a hell of a long way away. It still feels a long way away. But, then it must have
been an even bigger leap. It’s entering into a new life and growing up; that rites of passage.
The narrative arc of the story. I got to the end of the last story and felt I wanted more. Was it easy to close off
the play?
There’s clearly a journey going on. I was looking in the story for clues. I felt the layering of the clothes was a
clue. I came across a letter by Dylan Thomas – because I’d read all his letters and diaries – and there is only
one letter which describes how he’s going to end Skin Trade. Finding that helped me a lot, because it clarified
what you suspect really: that with each experience he loses a layer of clothing and in the end he ends up with
nothing. In the letter he wrote a passage about what Samuel Bennet as going to think about when he ends up
outside Paddington Station, so I’ve used that speech from the letter at the end of the play. I worked on a
circular journey, arriving at the station and ending up back there, looking for layers that worked within that. It
felt necessary to tie it up.
Were there other sources of material for the play?
I read The Prologue (Prologue to an Adventure) and I loved that. It was so surreal. I think it probably struck me
that it belonged to Skin Trade anyway, like part of the same story. It feels like it is part of the same experience
for him, if nothing else. So it made sense to pull some of that in, totally, and for that to part of the journey
when he was in London. Then there was the letter of course. I do a lot of research around things, and you talk
about Beckett. I think Samuel Bennet is Samuel Beckett and I think he is playing with that idea.
Did they ever meet?
I came across something. One of them admired the other but I can’t remember which way around.
I mentioned Rosie Probert from Under Milkwood. Does Thomas share his characters across his writing a lot?
He uses a lot of the same names and a lot of the same characters. They crop up in different places, again and
again, with those wonderful names.
Did you allow yourself to embellish the characters or did you just allow Thomas’ words eke out their
characteristics?
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Gosh, that’s tricky. I think the characters jump out of the story. They are vividly there. But once you’ve got
that, there are moments when you need to ensure they are there theatrically as well as on the page. You have
to make sure that when an actor takes a script away that they get a sense, not just from the words, but also
from the stage directions, of how to find this character. But they don’t need an awful lot because with Dylan
Thomas they are so vivid, even in the short stories. Sometimes you just need to embellish slightly just to
ensure that theatrically you are doing what the story does.
Samuel is central to all of this. To what degree is he a young Dylan Thomas?
I think he was. Originally, we had Samuel Bennet and he was also playing Dylan Thomas but it wasn’t working;
it was too clunky. I felt in Skin Trade we got a real sense of Thomas’ un-subconscious thinking – that’s probably
not the right word. There is a fragility there that is very revealing. There is a sense of insecurity and my
suspicion is that Dylan Thomas was, like many poets, quite insecure about his own writing sometimes and
frightened of seeming pretentious. I don’t think he was, but Samuel Bennet reflects on all that stuff at
different times.
The challenge for the actor playing Samuel then becomes to what degree he draws upon the play and to what
degree he looks to the life and character of Dylan Thomas. Did you talk about that much with Oli Woods?
The minute I saw him give a wink at one of the R&Ds to one of the Harpies and it looked totally like Dylan
Thomas and I thought ‘This guy has just got to do it. He’s got the eyelashes.’ He’s absolutely brilliant because
he plays the vulnerability as well as all the rest of it –
… Wicked vulnerability ….
You do so much and then the actors and the director do the rest. There’s only so much I can do. In the wrong
hands it can just die, but in the right hands they can take it to a whole other place; add a lot more depth to it.
Did you write the play knowing there will be a limited number of actors, doubling up and tripling up on
characters, or do you simply write for the characters that it needs?
I was aware that we weren’t going to have a big cast, but I was also deliberately aware that the Harpies
needed to be the other characters, the other women, because there was a point to that. It wasn’t just
because it doubled up; that he was thinking about these women and he was thinking about what he was
thinking about these women. Very often when you’re writing the limitations and challenges that you get are
the things that make you make things work. I wanted it to be that Polly, who was such a wonderful character,
looked like his sister as well; that it was the same character. That she was Polly in one and the sister in an
earlier one and you could make those connections. Part of the idea I was working with was that the whole play
was happening inside his head.
That sits nicely in the absurdist world when you lose that sense of time and place. Our students try and identify
theatrical style within a particular piece. Would you see the piece as absurdist? Do you try to define it all, or
see it as something eclectic?
If I had to put a label on it, it would be surrealist/absurdist. But it’s probably more than that. But if I was
directing it and I wanted my actors to hold onto something I’d tell them to think like that. I love surrealism. It’s
often a lot more truthful. You get a deeper truth. People are often scared of it, but it is very truthful.
There’d a lot of Magritte in there with the hanging suit, the hat, the furniture.
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Going back to other influences, I think surrealism and
absurdism, because I love all those surrealist painters. I felt
those stories ignited that; gave me permission to work like
that, which is how I like to work anyway.
Talking about the actor-audience relationship – the way the
actors relate directly with their audience and/or the response
or reaction they want their characters to elicit from their
audience – do you think about how characters engage with
the audience?
I think your relationship with the audience is the key to
everything. From the moment you begin your writing you
want to know how you want your audience to engage with
this play. There are different ways to work with an audience.
In this one I wanted it to be a combination of things, one of
which was at certain points that they are implicit in the world
of the play. Sometimes they are almost, almost addressed
directly, eavesdrop on things. They are privy to Samuel
Bennet’s inner thoughts and things that other people can’t
see, like the Harpies. Hopefully the audience have been
engaged at lots of different levels.
With Samuel and his Harpies I feel like there is an inner
dialogue (as against an inner monologue).
I felt like an inner monologue would have been too tedious.
Poor old Oli would have nearly died of exhaustion. It was to
be theatrical. Hopefully, with the Harpies it was giving a
different insight into what was going on inside his head.
Stage directions for you in this case involve vivid descriptions of this world. Are they important to you? We
know some directors who like to cross out every stage direction entirely.
Absolutely, they are important. You are building a world. Directions like ‘rolls her eyes’ or ‘sighs’, unless critical
just aren’t necessary. When writing for television you often need to put those things in because of the way it
works. In theatre the actors have plenty of time to find the sub-textual feelings. But for the world of the play,
particularly if it’s surreal like this one is, then you want to make sure that the sense of a world out of kilter is
there. The clothes hanging on the hatstand aren’t accidental. They’re part of the theatrical language of the
play. The language of the play is not just the dialogue. It is all the visuals, the layering of those visuals; not
something to be just cut out.
Is it important for a playwright to think in terms of all the stagecraft of the theatre?
Yes, very important. You don’t have to think you run it all. You are just part of a process. But in the writing
stage you need to inhabit that world completely and that means understanding why anything and everything
on that stage is there.
Does that come back to what that will give the characters and enable the actors to do?
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Yes, but also what it tells the audience. Sometimes you don’t need the actor on the stage. There can be
something else there that is saying something. It’s not all about the actors, but it is part of their language as
well. It creates the world for them. You’re always looking for how you cross that space between the audience
and actor, how the audience can enter that space.
Did you see this play in a particular time and space? It feels universal.
I love working in a space where we don’t really know where we are. People tell me off for it sometimes, but I
find it more interesting when you can be in one time one minute and another time in the next, and you
actually don’t quite know where you are. It is partly because I’ve got no sense of history. My education wasn’t
brilliant so things like history passed me by and I thought it all happened at the same time. So that’s the world
I inhabit, but I think that works for something like this because hopefully it’s as relevant to Dylan Thomas as it
is to some kid now going to London.
London is critical to the piece and so is leaving Wales. How important were accents to the piece? Did you hear
the accents in Thomas’ writing?
I always write to rhythm, so I was using Thomas’ rhythms. So they are more rhythms than accents
Could you talk about Theatre Iolo’s production and how you see it as a manifestation of your writing?
I am really delighted with what they have done. I think they took the script to whole other places which is
exactly what should happen. The casting is wonderful. The set is wonderful and Kevin has done a beautiful job
of directing it. It will be nice to revisit it before we come to Australia, mainly because there are a couple of
tweaks in the script I’d like to make, having seen it quite a few times now. But I think the production is
exquisite. I attended some of the rehearsals and you could see that there was room for the actors to play in it.
The key thing for a playwright to do is to create space for everyone else to do their job as well and not try and
tie it down too much.
Lucy, thank you so much for your time and generosity. I’m sure students and teachers alike will gain much from
your words on stage and here today.
Thank you so much for inviting me. I’m only sorry I won’t get down to Australia to see it.
The interview –
recorded using Evaer
on Skype – 6.30 am,
Thursday, April 9,
2015 (9.30pm,
Wednesday, April 9 –
Wales, UK).
Transcribed by Sam
Mackie and approved
for publication by
Lucy Gough.
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Adventures into Outcome 4.3
As part of VCE Theatre Studies – Unit 4: ‘Performance Interpretation’
students have Area of Study - ‘Performance Analysis’ - in which they focus
analysis and evaluation of the acting and design in a production selected from
playlist’, in this case Adventures in the Skin Trade by Theatr Iolo.
on ‘the
a
Here’s the knowledge - (VCAA VCE Theatre Studies Study Design –
Accreditation Period - 2014 – 2018, p27) - teachers and students explore,
together with considerations I might take:
The character/s in the production including status, motivation and
characteristics
The starting point for any character development must be the script. The director and actors analyse it for
clues before making decisions about how they will realise him, her or it on stage. Details may be found in the
writer’s descriptions/stage directions, in what they say about themselves, what other characters say about
them, in their actions or response to the actions of others around them, in their language, in their journey
across the play.
Here are some of the many considerations:
o
o
o
o
Characteristics can be:
 Physical – ‘feathered gorgons with wings and beaks’, ‘dressed as a murderer’.
 Intellectual – ‘an aspiring poet’, ‘they know him inside out.’
 Emotional/psychological – ‘naïve’, ‘wide-eyed and burning with imagination…’
 Other ways of seeing include spiritual, cultural, contextual … it’s about looking for
clues in the script as to who they are.
Motivations:
 Can be immediate – ‘to fleece Samuel’ - or lifelong – ‘Likes the world to know what it
wants and what it is.’
Status:
 Concerned with their relationship to the world around them: how they relate to other
characters in the play.
 Can be immediate – within a given scene – or lifelong.
 Most importantly, status can change and often does.
Given Circumstances
 Can be seen as embodying all of the above, but it is important you consider who they
are and where they are in their lives: the context in which they play out the events on
stage. Gough’s notes on his character tells us Samuel Bennet is ‘nineteen on his first
adventure from home’.
Further to this, in the opening scene we are given an exposition by the protagonist
himself:
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SAMUEL: Early morning in January 1933. Only one person was awake in the
street and he was the quietest. Call him… (PUTS THE TRILBY ON LOOKING AT
HIMSELF IN MIRROR ) Samuel Bennet. A Poet.
Between he and his Harpies we are given plenty more:
HARPIES : (A VOICE UNSEEN) Keeper of nail clippings and ear wax.
SAMUEL : A dreamer of falling women.
HARPIES : (A VOICE UNSEEN) Peeping Tom of Mortimer street.
SAMUEL : Adventurer.
HARPIES : (A VOICE UNSEEN) Cheater at patience.
With such a strong interior dialogue throughout the play – between Samuel and his Harpies
– there are boundless clues upon which the actor can build his character for the stage.
o
In the first instance these are all inferences and ideas that can be drawn from Gough’s script,
(and indeed Thomas’ stories). But, it is then the characteristics, motivations and status that
the actor brings to bear on stage: what each one chooses to accept, reject, build on, embellish
and shape their interpretation with. This is the interpretation by the actor …
SP – Use the table or script to build up a list of clues to Samuel Bennet’s character. Create a table with the
script references in the first column (including who says it) and then what it tells us about characteristics,
status/relationships, motivation and given circumstances.
Extension – read the short stories and look for further examples that build Samuel Bennet’s character.
SP - Repeat this for characters related to at least other actor.
Interpretation by actor/s of a playscript in performance
In the case of Samuel Bennet (you may choose to focus on different characters), we are interested in
what Oliver Wood presents to us on stage. Others will play this character in the future and bring
different qualities to the stage, despite beginning with the same script (think of all the Hamlets &
Medeas that have ever been portrayed on stage over the centuries).
Here is the full character description Gough offers:
SAMUEL BENNET - Nineteen on his first adventure from home. Wide eyed and burning with
imagination and rampant sexual fantasies. He is naive and desires to be a poet. He hears and is
plagued by three women Harpies who inhabit his mind until his near death experience in the bath
which gives him more confidence and control of his own imagination and fantasies. From then on
he is on a progressively more hallucinatory pilgrimage of experience. (p2)
Does Wood seem to embody all of this? Is there any suggestion of playing Thomas himself given the
semi-autobiographical nature of the play? Some have even wondered if there was some link to Samuel
Beckett, such is the similarity in name. An anti-Faust? A Candide of sorts? Or, has Wood taken on his
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own 19 year old ‘Everyman’ on a rites-of-passage experience? Is he every kid that ever wanted to
leave home and head for the big smoke? These are all possibilities and there are plenty more. Your job
is to interpret their interpretation. You do this by recalling, describing, analysing and evaluating the
actor’s …
SP – research into Adventures in the Skin Trade. Look for literary articles on Thomas’ stories and, more
specifically, discussions of Oliver Wood’s portrayal in assorted reviews & interviews (see links
provided). Discuss the different interpretations of his work. More importantly, develop your own
interpretation.
Expressive skills including facial expression, voice, gesture, movement, stillness and silence used by
the actor/s to realise character/s
This is all about your ability to capture what you see on stage through your writing; to allow your
reader to see and hear the actor at work.
In building up a picture of any complex character it becomes tricky to generalise the actor’s
movement, gesture and voice. We all have bursts of energy and vigour, lethargy and slothfulness. We
speak in whispers or scream to the world. We trip over our words with excitement or struggle to find
the right one. That said, we can identify predominant qualities to the actor’s work. It may be in an
accent, a limp, ‘wide-eyed’ facial expressions, a sense of stillness, stiffness in their posture, a smoker’s
cough, a lightness of step, flailing arms, introverted shoulders and hands in pockets.
Even in broadly defining the actor’s realisation it is better to capture it in moments across the play.
Describe Samuel as he destroys his family’s things in the middle of the night (with a lack of conviction),
sits furtively in the train’s lavatory, explores Allingham’s flat, finds himself alone in a bath with Polly,
dances drunkenly down the street with his new friends, or offers a final poetic denouement – naked
but for a well-placed trilby hat – to his audience. There are so many more moments that highlight and
contrast the actor’s work. This is far more effective than a generalisation that we cannot see or hear.
A good way to practise this is to take any of the pictures in this resource and describe the actor’s
expressive skills in that moment in detail.
SP. Build up a list for Samuel Bennet (Oliver Wood) , one of the Harpies and either George Ring or Mr
Allingham; the more examples the merrier.
You should be looking for moments across the play that are character defining; that capture the
characteristics, motivations, status and given circumstances.
SP. Choose and write about 3 – 5 distinct moments that highlight different aspects of their expressive
skills.
Once you have these skills captured you look to connections to other aspects of the actor’s work …
The use of focus and the acting space
While some see focus as how ‘focussed’ the actor is on stage, I see it as something far more integral to
the work of the actor (the former is more an evaluative statement that we don’t need to make). Focus
is about where the actor focuses our attention: how she helps us see what she is seeing. The actor
uses us focus to help us see their relationship with another character in how they look (or not look) at
them. She focusses on Chekhov’s gun, a glass menagerie, the skull of a court jester and tells us so
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much more. She looks out beyond the audience and sees a cherry orchard, a boat in the harbour, or a
distant memory. She clasps her head, closes her eyes and focusses on the demons in her mind.
Jenny Livsey’s Mrs Dacey is very clear in her focus on young Samuel, especially as the night wears on.
Matthew Bulgo’s George Ring bouncing, spinning, dancing and flouncing about suggests he is focussed
on very little but a good time.
One of the more intriguing use of focus in Adventures in the Skin Trade is between Samuel and his
Harpies. Woods uses shifts in focus – where and how he stares somewhere or at someone – to bring
us in and out of his mind. Sometimes these shifts are rapid and it is the use of focus that clarifies for
the audience whether we are in his imagination or the real world.
In considering the acting apace you need to consider the many settings of the play and how the actor
uses the space each time. How comfortable or familiar are they with that setting and where on stage
do they place themselves? This can tell us much about their character’s status amongst other things.
How comfortably do they move through each space and where do they place themselves relative to
other characters, objects or, perhaps, the audience?
The spaces of Adventures in the Skin Trade
We begin with ‘Samuel Bennet destroying his parents’ house in Mortimer Street off Stanley Grove.’
We witness a train ride to London, predominantly in the lavatory.
We watch Samuel dining in a buffet at Paddington Station.
We see them scramble through the excessively furnitured flat of Mr Allingham (that Gough describes
as ‘the muddle of Samuel’s mind and the chaos of the city’ (p36)).
 From there it is to Mrs Dacey’s; more specifically, the bathroom upstairs.
 The stage becomes a place where ‘The world is a strange underwater green colour’ of Sam’s mind as it
drowns in eau de cologne and he goes on an out of body experience.
 Brought back to the real world, The rest of the night is a drunken revelry out into the streets of
London, in and out of assorted bars and clubs - ‘The Antelope’ , ‘The G-spot’ & ‘The Seven Deadly Sins’
– before returning to Paddington station.
SP – For Wood and/or one of the other actors – describe their acting in 3 different settings. Then, tell us
what this reveals about their character: about their characteristics, status/relationships, motivation
and/or given circumstances (this equals analysis).




The use of language to convey the intended meanings of the play
Fundamentally, a playscript is a collection of words, carefully selected dialogue and stage directions
crafted to create meaning. The gift to the actor sits predominantly in the language they speak with. It
is how the actor delivers that language that not only highlights the character in all their guises, but
also highlights particular themes, moods and the style of the production. You need to highlight the
language of the script and capture the actor’s use of it.
In the case of Adventures in the Skin Trade we have the gift of Thomas’ unique writing style (see About
Dylan Thomas) adapted to the stage deftly by Lucy Gough.
Look and listen for the many poetic features, at once expressed in prose, and then transcribed onto
the stage, that emanate from the mouths of our characters, especially young Samuel: the rhythms and
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patterns, the use of alliteration and assonance, the memorable images and symbol, the word play, the
comedy, the sheer imagination of expression, all within the cadence of the living voice (hence how
easily it moved to the stage).
SP – Use the table or full script to find assorted examples from the play. Try to find different poetic
and/or dramatic language features. Describe the actor’s use of voice and other expressive skills in
their delivery (clue – in your examination writing it’s helpful to have contrasting examples).
The interrelationships between acting, direction and design
In Unit 3 students explore the role of stagecraft in their own and professional productions, analysing
how each one, in collaboration with others, adds to the overall intended meaning of the play. More
often than not the focus is on direction, set design, properties, costume, make-up, lighting, sound and
theatre technologies and their influence upon context, style, mood/atmosphere, characterisation and
themes.
In this outcome for Unit 4 the focus is very much on the link between the actor and these stagecraft:
how they directly relate to the actor’s work on stage in adding to the intended meaning.
The strongest correlation here would seem to be between actor and director. Do not try to decide if a
particular decision belonged to one or the other: the way he spoke into the shoe or the way she
dragged him centre stage by his collar. We are not privy to the rehearsal and decision making
processes. What you can see with a director relates to more overall staging decisions about blocking
and movement between all actors, evoking particular themes, exploring particular styles and
conventions, establishing a particular context. Attribute individual acting moments to both.
It is more tangible to see how the actor inter-relates with their own costume/s & make-up, the props
they employ, the aspects of the set they connect to. But, do not ignore how an actor works with
sound, lighting and theatre technologies. These atmospheric, thematic and stylistic devices often need
the actor to work hand in glove. It can be easier to not talk about one stagecraft in isolation with the
actor. Where several stagecraft are contributing to mood or character or context, reference them all.
SP - Here are a series of starting points for class discussions/ and or short written responses on specific
relationships between actor and stagecraft in Adventures in the Skin Trade:
o Costume - Samuel Bennet and the importance of his suit – first putting on, then losing piece
by piece.
o Props – Samuel Bennet and the bottle – symbol and comic device.
o Set – The cast and Mr Allingham’s flat – creating the impression of ‘A HOUSE FULL OF
FURNITURE STACKED EVERYWHERE ON MANY LEVELS’.
o Costume/make-up – The Harpies and assorted costume changes for specific characters. Eg
Mrs Dacey – dressed as a murderer in stiff black high necked dress – and the simple
manipulation of her hair.
o Set/sound/lighting – the cast and the decadence of ‘The G-Spot’.
o Sound – Samuel and his out of body experience as microphone amplified poetry reading.
o Props – Samuel Bennet and cutting all ties with his family through acts of blatant vandalism.
o Costume – George Ring’s foppish behaviour and that checked suit.
There are so many more. Use the table to find specific connections to theme or style or
character or context or mood.
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The establishment and maintenance of the actor–audience relationship
There is a misconception that an actor-audience relationship only exists when the actor relates
directly with her audience. This is not the case. Think of the simplest children’s pantomime. The
children have an innate response to each character on stage. They want to cheer them, boo them, run
away from them or go up and hug them. This is the same for all theatre.
In the most, the establishment of an actor-audience relationship occurs upon their first entrance (in
some cases even before we meet them – because we bring an attitude to the character into the
theatre with us). We feel some sort of connection – even if that is no connection – to them. Our job is
to realise what the actor does or says or doesn’t say or doesn’t do that evokes our internal responses;
a wink, a nod, a kiss, a smile, a tear, a joke, a flourish, a curse, a song, a lie.
The maintenance of that actor-audience relationship charts the journey of that actor’s work and how
our sympathies ebb and flow with the character in their narrative. Nothing may change, or everything
may.
Always make sure you are describing the work of the actor – and not simply the storyline – when
discussing the actor-audience relationship.
It is perhaps easier to begin with the likes of Jenny Livsey as Mrs Dacey, Ceri Elen as Polly, Matthew
Bulgo as George Ring, or to contrast the work of one actor in establishing different actor-audience
relationships in their realisation of different characters. Eg. Richard Nicholls as the Father and Mr
Allingham.
The more complex but interesting actor-audience relationship to consider is between us and our
protagonist, Samuel Bennet, as played by Oliver Wood. Samuel engages constantly in an interior
dialogue with himself: his Harpies. Yet he seems to talk directly to us. Indeed he introduces himself to
us from the outset.
Consider some of the events across the narrative listed below; how Wood portrays the young poet in
these scenes or relationships and how we respond to his words and actions. Choose 4 – 5 events
(again, with contrasting effects) and describe the actor’s work leading to its impact on the audience.
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
First introducing himself on stage.
Spying on the neighbours.
Vandalising his mother’s, sister’s and father’s things.
Leaving his family
Locking himself away in the train’s lavatory.
Fantasising over the woman in the fur coat in the buffet.
Getting the bottle stuck on his finger
Discussing his plans with Allingham.
Polly and the bath.
His out of body experience
Under the gaze of Mrs Dacey.
The debauched and drunken journey in and of London’s streets, bars and clubs.
Stripped down to nothing but his Trilby hat.
His final denouement.
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It is too much to consider all of these in your writing. You are looking for key points on stage where
Wood manipulates us with his wide eyes, his wicked smile, his shaking body, his crumbling state, his
gentle words, his naïve pleas, his false bravado, his earnest realisation, his ineffectual actions.
The interrelationships between acting and theatrical style/s utilised in the production
In this task there is no need to discuss any style but that which is presented to you on stage.
Essentially this means looking for specific acting conventions applied by the actor across the
production. This may include conventions of realistic acting: the portrayal of a three dimensional,
psychologically considered character. On top of this (or instead of) may be conventions that heighten
some aspect of the intended meaning of the play: the use of song, direct address, heightened use of
language, comedy, caricatures, biomechanical movement, the verfremdungseffekt, and so on.
Sometimes a production seeks to replicate a given theatrical style in its purest form. However, I would
encourage you not to delve deeply for a theatrical style if it is not there. Many contemporary theatre
practitioners do not think of style in such a manner. They pick and choose the conventions that allow
them to achieve their aims.
Adventures in the Skin Trade defies description when it comes to style. Some reviews suggest it evokes
the ‘world of the absurd’ (see Hollett) with ‘touches of Beckett, Pinter, even James Joyce about it’.
Indeed Gough’s instructions on staging allude to Ionesco’s ‘The Chairs’:
Starts simply with one room and grows until it is a crazy world made up of
furniture of all sorts, random stuff in strange places piled up high. Within the
chaos of this furniture a space can become a room, a station buffet, a street,
a train, a nightclub, a bathroom and even the city of London at night … ‘ (p3).
To consider this an absurdist piece you could look closely at the philosophical ramblings of Allingham
who asks Samuel fundamental existential questions that are at the heart of the absurdist movement:
Allingham: People who have come must go. People must know where they’re
going, otherwise the world could not be conducted on a sane basis. The streets
would be full of people just wandering about, wouldn’t they? Wandering about
and having useless arguments with people who know where they’re going (p29)
Is there a sense that time and place is meaningless (especially when there is no hope)? As a semiautobiographical piece there is a clear establishment of time – 1933 – and places – Wales and
Mortimer Street to many clearly defined locales in London. However, Allingham’s flat is at the core of
Gough’s setting and she is explicit in saying that the staging ‘represents the muddle of Samuel’s mind
and the chaos of the city.’
SP – In class, list more conventions of Theatre of the Absurd – especially those related to the actor –
and see what else can be applied to this production.
With this in mind, the dreamlike out of body sequences of the eau-de-cologne drowning, and – most
significantly - Gough’s creation of the chorus of Harpies, who speak his darker thoughts his sensitive
poetic thoughts and his fantasies, they know him inside out. They write down his poetic moments,
dress him protect him etc because they are him (p3), there is much to suggest a Surrealist vibe (with
apologies to ‘The Castle’). As a young man Thomas attended the famous London-Paris Surrealist
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exhibition of 1936, where he is said to have wandered round with a teapot full of boiled string asking
people if they like it weak or strong. Whilst acknowledging surrealistic features in his work, he
disavowed himself from aspects of the movement stating his need for a sense of control: "I do not
mind from where the images of a poem are dragged up; drag them up, if you like, from the
nethermost sea of the hidden self; but, before they reach paper, they must go through all the rational
processes of the intellect."
Some ideas on Surrealist theatre:
- No longer interested in the imitation of external reality, [it] turned to the imitation of personal
experience which, it felt, was more truthful, more profound, and even more universally significant
than any form of art that had preceded it” (Zinder 1)
- Its main difference lies in its defiance of the world of external reality and in its attempt to amplify
it, by actualizing the world of dream on stage, not necessarily in an idealized form, but in all its
depth, no matter how cruel it might be.
SP - The Surrealist theatre movement crosses paths with several other theatre styles being explored in
Europe at the time. Look further into Surrealism, expressionism, Theatre of Cruelty and, again, see
what conventions seem applicable to this production
Style and Structure
Structurally, we must remember Gough has adapted an unfinished work. But as one critic highlighted,
‘The piece is less concerned with narrative, though, than with the darkly poetic rambling of a questing
soul.’ Aside from opening scenes that begin in Wales, Samuel Bennet’s journey goes full circle,
beginning and ending at Paddington station. In the process Samuel loses seven items of clothing, each
one adorned upon a hatstand. His denouement reiterates that circular journey: ‘Now I am here,
outside Paddington station, just from where I began my pilgrimage, as naked as the day I was born.’
The twenty scenes are played out seamlessly, with actors manipulating the staging arrangements
while lighting and sound transform the atmosphere from one scene to the next. From the outset it is a
hero’s journey of sorts, a rites of passage, as Samuel destroys the family’s belongings to ensure there
is no return, and he can set off in search of his fantasies, sensual and poetic. It is Gough suggests ‘A
wildly exhilarating journey’ and we are intimately connected to it.
Samuel speaks towards us. But we may be simply the conduit, privileged eavesdroppers to the interior
dialogue he has with his Harpies. Their lines ‘tinged with poetic exclamation’ (Somerset) – ‘We know
you Samuel Bennet … searching for thighs in the library of classical favourites … lusting after
silhouettes on Laburnum blinds.’
Gough deliberately structured her play so that the three Harpies could play out all the female roles:
MRS DACEY – Jenny Livsey - dressed as a murderer in stiff black high necked dress, doubles as SAMUEL BENNET’S
MOTHER., MRS BAXTER. ONE OF THE HARPIES/BIRD, OTHER CHARACTERS ON TRAIN/BAR/CAFE ETC
POLLY – Ceri Elen - doubles as PEGGY, MRS ROSSER, ONE OF THE HARPIES/BIRD, OTHER CHARACTERS ON
TRAIN/BAR/CAFE ETC
ROSA – Ceri Ashe - doubles as WOMAN IN FUR COAT, MRS PROBERT, ONE OF THE HARPIES/BIRD
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Style and Characterisation
Gough prefaces the character list of her script with the following:
All the characters are larger than life, a cross between Dickens characters and Edward Gorey. Some
also have animal characteristics and at moments maybe also turn into animals. (p2)
The Dickensian reference alludes to ‘the novels of Charles Dickens, especially in suggesting the poor
social conditions or comically repulsive characters that they portray the backstreets of Dickensian
London’ (Wikipedia).
o
o
SP - Is this befitting for the likes of our Londoners: Mrs Dacey, Polly, Mr Allingham and George
Ring?
SP - Do the actors lift them to this larger than life quality? Which characteristics are lifted and
how do they use their expressive skills to achieve it?
Edward Gorey is an American writer illustrator. ‘His books
may be found in the humour and cartoon sections of major
bookstores, but books such as The Object Lesson have
earned serious critical respect as works of surrealist art. His
experimentation – creating books that were wordless, books
that were literally matchbox-sized, pop-up books, books
entirely populated by inanimate objects – complicates
matters still further. As Gorey told Richard Dyer of The
Boston Globe, "Ideally, if anything were any good, it would
be indescribable." Gorey classified his own work as literary
nonsense, the genre made most famous by Lewis Carroll and
Edward Lear. (Wikipaedia)
The highly visual nature of Gough’s stage directions that are manifest in the stylistic set, and the
animalisation of characters into birds, antelopes, and horses might support such a connection.
o
o
SP - Can you recall how the actors used their voices and bodies to create these forms?
SP - Look at this and other images from his work and see if there is anything that is reflected in the
characterisation on stage.
Styles and Conclusions
SP - Look then to Kevin Lewis’ staging and your own experience as an audience member. Consider
these (and other) theatrical conventions with a focus on the actor:




Greek Chorus – the Harpies. In what ways do they act as a chorus, in function and manner?
Direct Address – who talks to us?
Heightened Use of Language – are there different ‘heights’ of language in this production?
Transformation of character – this is not multiple roles. We see actors change themselves on
stage through simple ‘transformations’. Who does this, when and how? Does this include
animals?
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




Transformation of prop. Buckets become baths, shoes become telephones. But, be careful.
Are some of these just the imaginative play of the characters themselves, or an explicit
theatrical device?
Transformation of place – actors manipulate set and prop items to create different settings.
Think of the train lavatory or Mrs Dacey’s bathroom.
Stylised movement – when did the action of the actors move beyond real into something
heightened? In Allingham’s flat? In the stripping down of Samuel Bennet? In the background?
Comedy – (see ‘Adventures into Thomas’) - When are moments played for comic effect? Is this
achieved physically, verbally or both? Are there particular comic devices – black, slapstick,
innuendo, pun, pathos … ?
Others?
Adventures into the actors:
Samuel Bennet described in Lucy Gough’s script as - Nineteen on his first adventure from home. Wide
eyed and burning with imagination and rampant sexual fantasies. He is naive and desires to be a poet. He
hears and is plagued by three women Harpies who inhabit his mind until his near death experience in the bath
which gives him more confidence and control of his own imagination and fantasies. From then on he is on a
progressively more hallucinatory pilgrimage of experience.
But he is also a dreamer of falling women, the Peeping tom of Mortimer Street and so much more. There is
much of Dylan Thomas himself in the short stories, as well as the possible suggestion – by name – of Samuel
Beckett and his absurdist realm. Thomas described of one of Beckett’s characters, Murphy, ‘a complex and
oddly tragic figure who cannot reconcile the unreality of the seen world with the reality of the unseen’. There
would seem to be much of Samuel Bennet in this.
SP – Here are a series of questions to consider in building up your notes on Oliver Woods realisation of Samuel
Bennet, followed by the rest of the cast. I am sure there are more questions you could ask. Do them in any
order. Share them around







Describe the characteristics of the Samuel Bennet you saw on stage?
What can you glean from going back to Thomas’ stories or Lucy Gough’s script?
List a series of favourite and/or challenging moments involving the actor playing Samuel?
Is there a Welsh-ness to the character and if so, how is it manifest? Is it only in the accent, the
rhythms of the language, or is there more to it?
By the time he is in London I don’t live anywhere at all. I don’t do
any work either… I came up really to see what would happen to
me. What motivates Samuel Bennet?
What is Samuel’s relationship with the Harpies? Are they just his
thoughts there to constantly plague him and argue with him,
tease him, arouse him, challenge him? Are they always there and
does he know it? Use moments from the production to
demonstrate how Wood shows this.
There are so many shifts between Samuel and the world he is in
and Samuel’s internal dialogues. How does Wood make this clear
for the audience? Is focus an important consideration?
Oliver Wood
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





Describe the episode in the bath, a pivotal turning point in his adventures. Does this change in some
way who he is? Compare the realisation of Samuel by Woods before and after this (with a focus on
status).
Is Samuel aware of his audience? He seems to be staring out to them a lot, sharing his thoughts, yet
the words often seem to rebound back to the Harpies. Describe when and how he relates to us.
Should the audience feel the same about Samuel at the end of the play as they do at the start? What
has changed and how did Wood get us there
How do you see each loss of an item of clothing for Samuel? Describe each experience and how Wood
as Samuel copes.
Is Woods funny as Samuel? Analyse
moments of comedy and how he
achieves them? Start with the bottle on
the finger.
Discuss how any of the stagecraft –
costume, props, sound, lighting and set
– influences Wood and his realisation
of Samuel.
The Harpies
Ceri Ashe
Ceri Elen
Jenny Livsey
The Harpies are untouchable, feathered gorgons with wings and beaks…. They are all the fantasies in
Samuel’s mind … they constantly plague him, and argue with him, tease him, arouse him, challenge
him … they know him inside out… they represent the virgin, the whore, the mother of all women.
The three actors play out every female character that exists on stage.



Find out what a Harpy is – mythologically speaking. Does it seem to influence their
characterisation?
Can you glean anything about any of the female characters – especially Mrs Dacey, & Polly –
from going back to Thomas’ stories?
Do you see them as Harpies all the time, playing out the characters of Samuel’s adventures,
or do we dissociate them from that when they take on prescribed roles like Polly, Mrs Dacey
or Rosa?
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




 How do you describe the relationships
with Samuel Bennet, as Harpies and/or as
specific characters? Is Mrs Dacey the only one
who has any sort of desire for him? Work
through for one of the actors and the
characters they play.
 Do you see them individually as the
virgin, the whore, the mother of all women, or combinations of them all?
They each have many roles to play. Choose one actor and describe how they use expressive
skills to create characters that are distinct?
How do any of the stagecraft – sound, lighting, costume, props, set – influence their work as
actors in this production?
Stylistically, does the
suggestion of being a sort of
Greek chorus influence the
way they perform together
on stage? Are there particular
moments when that is
strongest?
As Harpies how aware are
they of their audience? Do
they look to them, gesture
towards them, talk to them
or is it all for Samuel only ?
They carry out a lot of stage management in front of the audience. Do they seem to do this as
Harpies or actors (ie neutral characters)?
The Men
MR ALLINGHAM
Richard Nichols
Matthew Bulgo
He has a face tattooed with numbers and workings out. A Fagin type character out to fleece
Samuel. Likes the world to know what it wants and what it is.
Doubles as SAMUEL BENNETS FATHER,
OTHER CHARACTERS ON TRAIN/BAR/CAFE ETC
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GEORGE RING.
Is also an aspiring poet and is rather camp;
Doubles as A HORSE. OTHER CHARACTERS ON TRAIN/BAR/CAFE ETC.






Glean what you can on any of
the characters the two actors
play – especially George and
Donald – from Thomas’ stories.
Gough prescribes Allingham as a
Fagan like character. Find out
who he was – if you don’t
remember Dickens’ Oliver Twist
– and discuss what
characteristics are manifest in
Nichols’ realisation.
Nichols other significant role is
as Sam’s father. Contrast the
realisation of these two characters in specific expressive skills – voice, posture, movement,
etc.
As George Ring, Matthew Bulgo brings a unique level of energy and comedy to the stage.
Describe his expressive skills in a series of key moments:
o When we first meet him.
o Bouncing around at the flat.
o Looking for Rosa
o Dancing.
o Discussing poetry with Samuel.
 For either George Ring or Donald Allingham, discuss
how the actor plays out their relationship with Samuel on
stage: what is their interest in him, how do they talk to him,
how do they relate to him physically.
 How do we respond to these characters? What do
the actors do to incite such responses in us?
Are these characters ‘larger than life’? Discuss the acting style of either Nicholls or Bulgo..
How do these actors relate to the Harpies? Are they aware of their presence all the time, or
only when they are playing out the women in their world? How do the actors ensure we
understand this?
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Adventures into the examination
Here are the questions from the last 5 written examinations for this particular area of study that you can
practise with.
In all cases below there are three questions, equally weighted (exception 2014 -B was worth one mark more).
My understanding is that the question could be a single long answer question but we have not seen any
examples of these.
In the 2014 written exam you would be have given 20% of time to the tasks = ~18 minutes.
2014 exam questions
A. Explain two characteristics of the chosen character that are evident in the performance.
B. How did the theatrical style(s) used in the production inform the portrayal of the chosen character?
C. How did the use of space help to convey the status of the chosen character?
2013 exam questions
A. Describe two or more key characteristics of one of the characters in the production.
B. Briefly explain how the application of one or more areas of stagecraft enhanced the acting in the
production
C. Analyse how one actor used one or more of the following expressive skills to interpret a character(s) in
the production
 Facial expression
 Voice
 Gesture
 Movement
 Stillness and silence
2012 exam questions
A. How did an actor convey a change of status of one of the characters during the performance?
B. Analyse one or more ways the actor(s) used the acting space during the performance.
C. Briefly explain the relationship between the acting and the theatrical style(s) used in the performance.
2011 exam questions
A. Describe two or more key characteristics of one of the characters in the performance
B. Discuss how one actor used verbal and non-verbal language when portraying a character in a play.
C. Briefly analyse one actor’s use of expressive skills to interpret the playscript in performance.
2010 exam questions
A. Analyse how one actor used expressive skills in the performance.
B. Briefly evaluate how one actor established and maintained an actor-audience relationship.
C. Describe how one of the following areas of stagecraft enhanced the acting in the play.
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APPENDIXES
Appendix 1:
SCRIPT AND PRODUCTION TABLE (See separate Attachment)
Appendix 2:
LUCY GOUGH ESSAY ON ADAPTING DYLAN THOMAS FOR THE STAGE
Unlocking A Mind
By LUCY GOUGH
On adapting Dylan Thomas for the stage
Journeying into an unfinished novel and the dissection of a mind.
‘In a writer of great originality there is sometimes a heckler closer to him than his admirer, a dissenter who will
not keep step with fame, a spur which contradicts progress, such a writer was Dylan Thomas.’ VERNON
WATKINS (Introduction to ‘Adventures In The Skin Trade’)
I was commissioned by Theatr Iolo to adapt for the stage ADVENTURES IN THE SKIN TRADE by Dylan Thomas
(an unfinished novel) as part of the Dylan Thomas centenary celebrations.
The challenge for me was not relating the central narrative of a young man, Samuel Bennett’s, first heady
experience of London but of portraying the complex interior thoughts of self doubt and self disapproval which
plague this young adolescent man and are so much part of the novel.
In this paper I discuss the strategies I used to transfer these interior, intimate and complex thoughts into a
three dimensional space.
SAMUEL: ‘The Rossers, the Proberts and The Bennets still and safe and deep in their separate silences. Only
my mind harpies, shrill untouchable gorgons disturb the dawn.’
-
Quote from Lucy Gough’s Adaptation of Adventures in The Skin Trade, the stage adaptation of
ADVENTURES IN THE SKIN TRADE toured Wales Autumn 2014
Adventures in the skin trade is an unfinished novel or series of short stories held together by a theme, it is
also a wild exhilarating journey which begs to be lifted off the page. And reading it in preparation for
adaption, the story was so wonderfully full bodied and surreal it was a gift. In simple terms the story is a rite
of passage from boy to man, a young aspiring poet on his first journey to the big smoke of London and on this
level it is clear how to tell this story.
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But the minute I started to think about how to transfer this story to the stage I came across my first real
challenge.
I realised that the wildness and heady humour of this reckless young man (Samuel Bennett) was tempered
with interior thoughts which countered the fast paced surreal narrative and actually gave the whole thing far
more depth, but all of this was so interior so much about inner thoughts and fears I wrestled with how to bring
such thoughts and anxieties to the stage. Of course Hamlet pulls it off but I feared that thoughtful monologues
delivered by Samuel Bennett could come over as pretentious exactly the thing Samuel as a newly developing
poet (and Dylan Thomas) most feared. When reading these thoughts in the novel the niggling accusations, the
fears and insecurities are felt, but when spoken aloud there is a danger they will become self conscious, be too
loaded and even if you played on this and drew the humour out of it there was still the danger that the drama
would become too much talking heads. So I experimented with separating the inner and outer voice of
Samuel Bennett and this started to reveal an interesting insight into the way in which the inner complexity of
this character at times collided with the outer persona ....so the notion of separating seemed to have dramatic
potential. This decision to separate the inner and outer voices was reinforced by something I read that
Vernon Watkins had written
‘In a writer of great originality there is sometimes a heckler closer to him than his admirer, a dissenter who
will not keep step with fame, a spur which contradicts progress, such a writer was Dylan Thomas.’
This quote was from the Introduction to ‘Adventures in the Skin Trade’. This quote from Vernon Watkins
convinced me that I had tapped into an important truth about the story because there is undoubtedly an
element of the Adventures In The Skin Trade that is autobiographical. The other thing necessary when taking
something from a novel to the stage is to find ways to reinvent it within a three dimensional space and by
personifying what are in fact thoughts, embodying them, placing them physically on the stage ensures the
book is being worked into another form.
Making such a fundamental change, (one which I hope is true to the nature of the book) it also seemed to
make sense to use this device to shift the perspective of the story a little and to find a way to reflect the time
(21st century) in which it is being staged, another of the challenges one is always faced with when adapting
something.
In the novel Samuel is battling with these inner thoughts, they harass him, undermine him, scold him, they
plague him with self doubt and mock his poetic thoughts, they reveal his sexual desires and fantasies and also
his sensitivity...
When smashing up his parent’s house...he hesitates...
‘I should break the windows and stuff the cushions with the glass’ ‘but you won’t’ ‘you’re afraid of the noise’
’it isn’t that’. One of his inner voices perceptively observes, ‘You’re afraid she’ll cut her hands’
These inner thoughts at once ground the character ‘keeper of earwax’ and at the same time allow great flights
of fancy, ‘Or will the room be as full as a cemetery, but with the invisible dead breathing and snoring all
around me?’ (all quotes from ‘Adventures in The Skin Trade. Dylan Thomas)
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So I started to analyse how to manifest these inner voices onto the stage...
It felt appropriate for these inner voices to be personified by the women who are the subject of so much of his
inner turmoil his lusting and letchings. For these inner thoughts to be represented by three women already
part of his overheated fantasies and for them to pick away at his self confidence chastise him for his
inappropriate thoughts, debunk his poetic aspirations. The hope being that this ensured we are always
referring back to the novel but also making a slightly more contemporary interpretation of what is happening
there..........so I made them into mind harpies...
A quote from the play.....
SAMUEL:
‘The Rossers, the Proberts and The Bennets still and safe and deep in their separate
silences. Only my mind harpies, shrill untouchable gorgons disturb the dawn. ‘
There is an element in this novel of each character having animalistic characteristics it is part of its nightmarish
dark underworld and so the notion that these thoughts could be half bird and half women, harpies, seemed to
work. They are not in the novel and of course it is always a risk to introduce something new, but most of the
words they speak are words in the novel rearranged in a different order, because once I had alighted on this
idea I then had to make it work.
So using material from the novel slowly the harpies start to reveal themselves.
SAMUEL:
(TALKS TO HIMSELF AS HE LOOKS IN THE MIRROR) Early morning in January 1933.
Only one person was awake in the street and he was the quietest. Call him… (PUTS THE TRILBY ON
LOOKING AT HIMSELF IN MIRROR) Samuel Bennett. A Poet.
Harpies:
(A VOICE UNSEEN) Keeper of nail clippings and ear wax.
Samuel:
A dreamer of falling women.
Harpies:
(A VOICE UNSEEN) Peeping Tom of Mortimer Street.
SAMUEL:
Adventurer.
HARPIES:
(A VOICE UNSEEN) Cheater at patience.
FATHER LETS OUT A LOUD SNORE WHICH SHAKES THE FURNITURE.
SAMUEL:
Hush. (To his father) Hush father, you will shake the neighbours and no one must
disturb me now.
THE CLOCK CHIMES ‘ONE’ THE HORSE NEIGHS (GEORGE RING) A BLIND LIGHTS UP SOMEWHERE IN THE
JUMBLE OF FURNITURE TO REVEAL THE SILHOUETTE of a FIGURE WITH THE BODY OF A LARGE
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BREASTED WOMAN AND A GOATS HEAD (ONE OF THE HARPIES). (THESE SILHOUETTES COULD BE
PUPPETS.) SHE IS BUTTING THE AIR IN HER NIGHTGOWN.
HARPIES:
But you disturb us Samuel Bennett.
SAMUEL PERCHES ON A STOOL AND PEERS AT HER THROUGH BINOCULARS.
SAMUEL:
Not tonight Mrs Probert.
A SECOND BLIND LIGHTS UP TO REVEAL ANOTHER SILHOUETTE THIS TIME OF A NAKED WOMAN
PULLING A GARTER ONTO HER THIGH SEDUCTIVELY.
HARPIES:
We know you Samuel Bennett, keyhole peeper.
SAMUEL:
Everyone is mad and bad in his box when the blinds are pulled.
HARPIES:
Searching for thighs in the library of classical favourites.
SAMUEL:
As we speak your lodger is opening his umbrella.
THE LODGER OPENS THE UMBRELLA FULLY.
ANOTHER BLIND LIGHTS UP AND A WOMAN SLIPS OUT FROM UNDER A LARGE NIGHTY TO REVEAL A
HUMP.
HARPIES:
We’ve seen you standing under the lamp post, watching our shadows undress.
SAMUEL:
Which is why I am the only gooseberry in Stanley grove who knows that your husband
is married to a camel.
HARPIES:
We’ve seen you Samuel Bennett, lusting after silhouettes on laburnam blinds.
SAMUEL:
Not tonight. Tonight, you can watch me as I destroy my past so I can never return.
Mrs Baxter from no. 44 have a dekko from under the cold sheets come and see me destroying the
evidence.
(All of this is quoted from the play. By Lucy Gough)
Part of finding this three dimensionality is to recognise how to work with the audience, what of the novel to
leave out, creating space for their imagination. The way that I approach this is to work intensely on the subtext
the underlying fabric of the novel to get under the skin at the same time as attempting to understand the
mind of the writer. In this case I read letters, diaries, novels, poems and if I didn’t know it already this
absorption in his work convinced me that he is a genius the extraordinary connections he is always making and
his complex word play are what hold this together.
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I heard Bonnie Greer talking about adaptation she said that when doing an adaptation for the stage one had
to unpick the novel completely and then find a new way to put it back together. For me part of this unpicking
of the novel involves having an insight into the mind of the author and linked to this an understanding of the
way in which structure works in the novel.
Having adapted Wuthering heights for both radio 4 and then for the stage I had already found myself peering
into the darker reaches of an authors mind and I felt that to do justice to a novel one has to really get under
the skin of the writer and what they were trying to do. In Bronte’s case it seemed to me that the structure of
the novel and her mind were inextricably linked, effectively fusing the inner and outer world of the place in
the novel and of the mind. To this end in the radio version I made the house of Wuthering Heights a character
that spoke but which was also Emily Bronte’s mind.
The way in which Thomas does this is again structurally. The novel reads as a chaotic uncontrolled piece but
actually it is far from this. Repeated images and thoughts echo throughout and tie it together as well as the
constant play on words which cleverly and rigorously holds the story together. And that interior dialogue
Samuel is having with himself and which is so much part of Dylan Thomas’s own insecurities justifies the trope
of using the mind furies, I hope. Since part of what it achieves is a transference of the layers which are
present in the novel into a new reincarnation on the stage, I did not want to lose those layers.
So part of the way in which I was able to hoist this piece up into a three dimensional form was to link images
and words across the canvas and to personify thoughts. It felt a bit like building a small very intricate model in
which everything relies on being connected to something else and in this way images such as the sea and the
waves that run through the story working on many levels holding the piece together.
How to end this play when the novel was unfinished also presented a challenge.
Again I found unpicking the structure finding the pattern laid down in it helped me to find my way to an
ending.
I also felt it was a touchingly prophetic vision of Dylan Thomas’s final end. The intoxication in the bath
reminiscent of his last night in New York and a wild young life flashing before ones eye reminiscent of a
drowning man’s life flashing in front of him..
I came across a letter written by Dylan Thomas to Peter Baker (The Collected Letters. Edited by Paul Ferris) in
which he describes how he wants to end this novel. So much of what is said in the letter was already present
in the patterning and subtext of the story, a peeling away of skins, of layers, as a young man plunges into
growing up finding his voice.
I had already felt from the structure of what was there and the way in which it was shapeshifting into it this
new form that a circular structure of increasing circles each one at once leaving Samuel Bennett more exposed
but also wiser the sense that layers of experience, I had thought of like a snake losing its skin with each new
experience.
Finally I think it is interesting and ties in to what I have been saying that even here Dylan Thomas is apologising
if he appears pretentious. His inner fears and insecurities as Vernon Watkins said always keeping pace with
him.
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Appendix 3:
REVIEWS OF ADVENTURES IN THE SKIN TRADE PRODUCTION
Theatr Iolo , Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff , October-10-14
It was quite a jolt, in no way an unpleasant one I hasten to
add, moving from Shakespeare’s clear tragic narrative,
Romeo and Juliet the previous night to Theatr Iolo’s
presentation of Dylan Thomas’ surreal unfinished novel,
Adventures in the Skin Trade. Lucy Gough who has
adapted the story for the stage brings her own touch of
magic that adds even more delight to Thomas’ tantalizing
imaginings. Written in the last year of his life it indicates a
development towards a prose form, still with his brilliance
but maybe more easily accessible than much of his poetry.
The central character is a young man, just, Samuel
Bennett – ‘Beckett!’ the echoes are very much there. He
parallels the young Dylan who also visited London himself
for the first time when he was just 19. Sam is the same
age or thereabouts, we are left uncertain about his age as
we are left uncertain of many of the curious, slightly
disturbing happenings in the play.
Sam’s main achievement in the course of the action seems to be to get his finger stuck inside a beer bottle. I
just hope he was able to drink the beer first. But like most of what happens in this enthralling seventy-five
minutes it’s hard to tell if we are seeing it or just letting it all waft past our eyes like a dream. A pleasant
enough dream for all that.
Each member of this fine cast has put on a skin of their own that transforms them into the shadowy figures
they represent. Sam, a mountain of a role, is played with a deft skill by Oliver Wood. Although by the end of
the play he has experienced the seamy side of London life, at times stripped down to his underwear his whole
body expresses a bemused vulnerability that he carries right from the moment we first meet him until his final
words as the play ends and he is a real joy to watch. Olly Wood a portentous name, let’s hope it works for
him!
The tall bent wood coat stand is a toilet roll holder; Sam spends most of his train journey to London cramped
up in the toilet much to the chagrin of Mr George Ring. A gorgeous and outrageous performance from the
tight tweed suited, bow tied Matthew Bulgo. His snake-like dancing entwines its way through the many
obstacles to life that is the furniture scattered in no particular order about the stage.
Sam’s still not sure what it’s all about even after a session in a tin bath with a cool blond. The best service she
does for him is to remove the bottle from his finger. He is led on his perilous journey though the down-beat
taverns and streets of London by a canny Mr Allingham, another consummate performance by Richard Nichols
who in the early part of the play played Samuel’s dad.
Not just one cool lady to tempt our reluctant hero but three, who slip in and out of their clothes and in and
out of different characters with a charming skill, in fact the performances of Ceri Ashe, Ceri Elen, and Jenny
Livsey are the delicious icing on the top of this mysterious yet delectable cake.
Reviewed by: Michel Kelligan
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Adventures In The Skin Trade
Theatr Iolo , Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold , October-30-14
What a pleasure in this centenary year to encounter a Dylan Thomas play I knew nothing about. Well OK, it's
actually a Dylan Thomas novel, and an unfinished one too. But Lucy Gough has adapted it for the stage and
she has created a new play in the unmistakable tones of Thomas.
What we see and experience sprawls messily, sparking off in strange directions with moments that remind us
of other Thomas works, but then I suspect the book is like that too.
It starts with Samuel Bennet trashing then leaving his Swansea home and striking out for the bright lights of
London and an exciting new life. His first port of call in the big city is the railway buffet which might appear to
be the height of sophistication.
However he's soon led out into a wider world of eccentric people, extraordinarily cluttered flats, dangerous
women and drinks. His day ends with a series of lost clothing and the lucky retention of a hat for use not in
covering up a head but more sensitive regions.
Throughout Kevin Lewis' fast production there's a palpable feeling of the strangeness of a new place and the
uncertainties of a metropolis, its people and its places. There's a lot of very effective climbing over, under,
through and around the crowded set by his energetic cast.
Oliver Wood is a very good, vulnerable innocent as Sam and there's an ingenious and successful Greek
chorus as his inner voices. This is provided by Ceri Ashe, Ceri Elen and Jenny Livesey when they are not being
the often dangerous other women he meets.
The male inhabitants in this world of the absurd are provided by Matthew Bulgo and Richard Nichols. A word
too for Jem Treays whose movement work provides constant pleasures and designer Neil Davies whose stage
clutter adds a constant air of uncertainty to the evening.
The production has touches of Beckett, Pinter even James Joyce about it. But what Lucy Gough allows us to
hear is the unmistakeable voice of Dylan Thomas grappling with recalcitrant material and providing the
audience with entertaining diversion while he struggles.
Reviewed by: Victor Hallett
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Adventurous Dylan Contribution
Theatr Iolo , Aberystwyth Arts Centre , October-21-14
The Year of Dylan is beginning to feel a behemoth. Symposia and colloqiua, at least one more tour, are to
come. Theatr Iolo has performed a service in pointing to a part of the prose that has so far received small
attention. The Aber audience had a reader of the stories from a long way back who wondered about the tone.
But transcription across the genres can never be replication. Theatre’s first obligation is to itself and Kevin
Lewis’ production is rambunctious and vivid. It also gives insight into the oeuvre with many a whisper of work
to come.
Lucy Gough’s adaptation begins in Wales. Matthew Bulgo is seated stage rear with his head slumped forward.
Jenny Livsey is draped over a cupboard that is part of Neil Davies’ delicious ramble of a set. She, Ceri Elen and
Ceri Ashe act as a kind of chorus with darting lines tinged in poetic exclamation. Oliver Wood is Samuel
Bennett, not yet twenty, with a habit of hoarding finger-nails and ear wax. He is prompted to remember to
taste his tears. On the journey east he exhibits a selfishness, emblematic of the author, in hogging the train’s
lavatory and denying access to a fellow passenger in discomfort.
“Adventures in the Skin Trade” takes off when the action moves to Praed Street at the back of Paddington,
now a place of sleek wealth but then a hub for London’s Cardi-dominated milk trade. The set comes into its
own as new acquaintance Richard Nichols’ Donald guides the Dylan ingénue to his set of rooms stuffed with
furniture. It includes a jar big enough to hold a man. Donald has a leaning towards philosophising but is
earthbound enough to have downed forty-nine Guinnesses in a single session.
The city is a harsh place, the adjoining premises having been site for a violent suicide. The Candide-like Samuel
is led on a picaresque journey in search of an elusive female contact. For much of the action he has a beer
bottle stuck to his little finger. He encounters stentorian-voiced café owner Mrs Dacey. Seductive Polly, with
cadences of “Under Milk Wood”, lures him to a tin tub and gives him eau de cologne to drink. The tub is
knowingly numbered “42.”
The ensemble goes off to explore some louche night life. Dylan Thomas was little of a proto-feminist and the
roles for women are those of either matron or Eros. Oliver Wood is left at the women’s hands bereft of
clothing but with his pork pie hat left for his modesty. The London adventures, or misadventures, are
animated and dependent on the presence of Matthew Bulgo. His George is a marvellous plummy bohemian in
his bowtie and check suit. He and the ensemble are given some loping movements- Jem Treays movement
director. George expatiates on his preference for Wordsworth over Walter de la Mare. Learning that his new
acquaintance hails from Wales he enquires “Oh, do you know Tintern Abbey?”
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset
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ADVENTURES OF THE SKIN TRADE | STAGE REVIEW
CHAPTER ARTS CENTRE, CARDIFF, WED 8 OCT
I’ve ended up not seeing a huge amount of the Dylan Thomas themed productions that have popped up as
part of the centenary year of his birth, and there have been a lot. Even without seeing these productions,
however, I have slowly gotten fed up of hearing about the renowned Welsh poet. I’m all for his work but by
this point in the year I felt a bit like they had over-egged the poetic pudding.
Theatr Iolo’s Adventures Of The Skin Trade, however, is a production that seemed to be offering a different
angle as it brings to the stage Thomas’ unfinished novel about a young Welsh man’s adventures in London.
The start of the play felt a little bit jarring. I often think that there is a small ‘buffering’ period when watching
plays with a poetic edge, as characters talk and think in artistic ways that don’t feel quite natural at first,
and Adventures Of The Skin Trade started in the deep end.
This, accompanied with a few clumsy looking scene changes, made of a bit of a tricky start but a few scenes in
the play found its flow. From then on in it was fantastic.
Oliver Wood was perfect as Samuel Bennett – a young welsh boy naively moving to London in the hopes that
an adventure will find him. He soon befriends a group of eccentrics and embarks on a drunken, sexually
charged and highly surreal night out in the big smoke.
The other members of the cast played a variety of characters but did it so well that each time they took on a
new role I completely forgot it was the same actors I was looking at.
Matthew Bulgo was a funny and believably camp George Ring, Richard Nichols created a Mr Allingham that
was still enjoyable to watch as the most down-to-earth of the eccentric s and Jenny Livsey was outstanding in
all her roles. She moved seamlessly from the concerned Mrs Bennett, to the poetic voice in Samuel’s head, to
the stern voiced tea house owner – with small changes in her expressions she was able to give them all
entirely different faces.
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All the cast were strong, as were the lighting (Jane Lalljee) and sound (John Norton) designers who were able
to completely change the setting and even portray Bennett’s perception of the world with just a few sound
and light cues. Director Kevin Lewis did a fantastic job at bringing all these elements together and he got some
great performances out of his already strong cast.
Adventures Of The Skin Trade was unfortunately an unfinished piece and, although this was a completed story
arc, the ending did feel a bit incomplete. It was, however, a wise choice as it meant the audience had a
chance to contemplate what this play could have been had Thomas finished writing it before his sudden
death.
Even if you aren’t big on poetry I would highly recommend the show – if your intrigued by tales of chance
meetings with peculiar characters, drunken nights in odd places and surreal sexual encounters then you’ll
certainly enjoy this production.
CHAPTER ARTS CENTRE, CARDIFF, UNTIL TUES 14 OCT / PARK & DARE, TREORCI, WED 15 OCT /
ABERYSTWYTH ARTS CENTRE, FRI 17 OCT / FFWRNES, LLANELLI, TUES 21 OCT / THE WELFARE HALL,
YSTRADGYNLAIS, WED 22 OCT / CLWYD THEATR CYMRU, MOLD, FRI 24 + SAT 25 OCT / THE TORCH THEATRE,
MILFORD HAVEN, WED 29 OCT / MINERS’ INSTITUTE, BLACKWOOD, THURS 30 OCT. TICKETS: £5-£14 INFO:
029 2061 3782 / WWW.THEATRIOLO.COM
Jenny Livsey, Oliver Wood Credit: Farrows Creative
British Theatre Guide
The leading independent web site on British theatre
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Dylan Thomas, Lucy Gough
Theatr Iolo
Chapter, Cardiff
From 08 October 2014 to 14 October 2014
Review by Othniel Smith
Adventures in the Skin Trade is that rare thing—a centenary tribute to Dylan Thomas which isn’t a version
of Under Milk Wood.
According to the exemplary programme provided by the company, Thomas’s sole attempt at prose fiction was
commenced in the late 1930s, and filleted for short fiction material over the next decade and a half, but
remained unfinished at the time of his death. It has been explored in theatre before—most notably by Under
Milk Wood filmmaker Andrew Sinclair in a 1966 production which helped launch the career of David
Hemmings.
For Theatr Iolo, however, playwright Lucy Gough went back to the source material, describing it as a “wild,
exhilarating journey”, but pointing out the difficulties inherent in adapting a text which consists largely of
surreal interior monologue.
This is the vaguely autobiographical story of Samuel Bennett, an aspiring poet, who leaves his home in South
Wales in order to make his way in London. Here, he falls amongst eccentrics, and manages to get a beer-bottle
stuck to his little finger—an intentionally clumsy metaphor, one assumes.
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Neil Davies’s set is a subtly nightmarish drawing-room, packed almost solid with vintage furniture. In
an amusing visual touch, director Kevin Lewis has the cast climb through it to get from place to place.
As the action begins, a nervy Samuel is preparing to make his move, and trashes the family home and
his reputation. It quickly becomes clear, though, that this is pure fantasy, and soon, his parents and
sister are lovingly seeing him off on his uncertain journey.
He arrives in London with nothing in his pockets but a little money and the contact details of an
apparently willing woman. He has barely
left Paddington Station when he falls
under the spell of a chatty furniture dealer,
and accepts his offer of a bed for the night.
This ostensibly charitable act results in an
evening which becomes memorable for a
variety of not entirely predictable reasons.
Oliver Wood is easy to relate to as the
ambitious youngster. Not exactly likeable
as a character, Wood conveys his
apprehension, confusion and growing
confidence with great charm.
The supporting cast, each playing at least
two roles—as well as the chorus of
nagging doubt—is uniformly good.
Richard Nichols is reliably authoritative as
two contrasting father figures. Jenny
Livsey effortlessly shifts from caring
mother to morally ambiguous black-clad
tea-shop owner.
Ceri Elen is impressively unreadable as
the faux-innocent London lass; Matthew
Bulgo’s jolly fellow resident ably carries
much of the comic weight; and Ceri Ashe
is all airily rough-hewn sensuality as a
variety of femmes fatales.
Not having read Thomas’s original, I’m in
no position to judge whether or not Gough
has wrought a coherent conclusion, although it seems to work in this context. The piece is less
concerned with narrative, though, than with the darkly poetic rambling of a questing soul. John
Norton’s modernist sound design adds to the unsettling ambience.
The Cardiff run comes in the middle of an extensive Welsh tour. Dylan Thomas devotees who make
the effort to go along will be entranced, amused, and perhaps a little shocked.
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ADVENTURES IN THE SKIN TRADE
by Gary Raymond
Oliver Wood, Ceri Elen,
Matthew Bulgo, Ceri Ashe, Jenny Livsey
Photo: Farrows Creative
Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
Theatr Iolo
Directed by Kevin Lewis
Adapted from the Dylan Thomas book by Lucy Gough
Starring: Oliver Wood, Ceri Ashe, Matthew Bulgo, Ceri Elen, Jenny Livsey and Richard Nichols
There is something about Dylan Thomas’ half-written half-hearted attempt at a novel, Adventures in the Skin
Trade that simultaneously suggests it as unadaptable to performance and too comically tempting to any
scriptwriter who might come across it to leave it alone. In the novel there is something inherently dramatic,
propulsive, alluringly comical. It is in the way the characters move about each other, the borderline-absurdist
scenarios, part dreamscape, part poetic whimsy, part hero’s journey, part coming-of-age tale. But there is
something throughout the novel that is tantalisingly just out of reach. There is something very ‘first draft’
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about it. It is almost so many things. Had it been finished, polished and taken seriously by its author, it could
well have been his masterpiece and Thomas would be remembered as much for his comic prose as his
towering verse.
For those looking to adapt, then, such a work is fraught with danger. Thomas has the spotlight this year, and
an adaptation that does not at least replicate his spirit could come in for some real flak from some serious
quarters. There is so much space in the novel, that an adapter could wander off in directions from which they
never find their way back. Well, fortune, fate or shrewdness – (probably shrewdness seeing it’s Kevin Lewis at
the helm) – brought Lucy Gough back to Theatr Iolo for the first collaboration between the writer and
company in many years. Gough’s finest work to date is her BBC Radio Four adaptation of Wuthering Heights, a
novel that has often proved deceptively difficult to realise visually, but Gough searched and found an oral
pressure point in it. In Wuthering Heights her master-stroke was to make the house itself a moving talking
character. Here, in this riotously and kinetically imaginative Adventures in the Skin Trade she again finds the
key to releasing the text from its own inherent ‘literariness’ and that is to treat the text as a swirling Greek
chorus, and the dialogue as high end Ealing comedy. Dylan Thomas himself, without doubt, would have
enjoyed this production immensely.
Jenny Livsey, Oliver Wood
Photo: Farrows Creative
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Kevin Lewis as well, always an energetic and fascinating presence in the director’s chair, goes full pelt for the
child-like ‘play’ of the scenes. Lewis, it is safe to assume, directs always with one eye on his childhood games,
and here the set is like a kid’s den. In the scene taken from ‘Plenty of Furniture’ characters climb and duck and
dive and weave, the make-believe is joyously believable, and, perhaps most importantly in this anniversary
year, everything seems to exude absolutely the spirit of Thomas’ chortling, naughty, mischievous side. The
tone is somewhere between Meet Mr Lucifer and Yellow Submarine. Sam Bennet, the main character, the fish
out of water, the Welsh boy in the Big Smoke of London 1933, seems to step into cartoonish parades, and is
swept along, becomes cartoon too, and then pokes his head above water for air at intervals. Amidst the great
lines, the poetry and the comedy, the cast fully realise the necessity to have fun in their roles. Oliver Wood as
Bennet, the boy with the bottle on his finger, is superb in the centre of it all, equally knowing and naïve. There
is something distinctly Beckettian about his experiences, and had the Irish genius (who admired Thomas’
poetry greatly) thought to adapt the Welsh genius, he may very well have done it something like this. But
there is perhaps something of Beckett in Bennet, too. Thomas wrote of Beckett’s Murphy, the central
eponymous character in the first of Beckett’s novel trilogy masterpiece, that Murphy is ‘a complex and oddly
tragic figure who cannot reconcile the unreality of the seen world with the reality of the unseen […] (his)
successors, Watt, Molloy, Moran, Malone share his unassimilability but not his bliss.’ This, it seems, is an exact
description of the Bennet that Wood presents us, the one that Gough writes, and Lewis frames in glorious
absurdist monochrome.
Richard Nichols and Matthew Bulgo bring with them in portrayals of Allingham and George a kind of postDickensian London mass – they are characters both highly individual and curiously of familiar stock. Eccentrics.
It is all part of the big city circus. Moving between Greek chorus and the female characters, Ceri Ashe, Ceri
Elen and Jenny Livsey press the whole thing together. It is a marvellous, invigorating ensemble.
Theatre Iolo’s Adventures in the Skin Trade continues its tour around Wales until the end of the month, and so
far is the absolute highlight of the Dylan Thomas anniversary. With all of the rigmarole and politicking around
the dylanwad, all of the nonsense and tubthumping, it is good to see that the good old fashioned creative
energy of Theatr Iolo can bring us all back to where we should be: in the lap of the magnificent spirit of the
poet.
© Banner image courtesy of Farrows Creative
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Adventures in the skin trade

Transcription

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