Reviewed by John Ritchie
Just occasionally we are reminded what Fringe Theatre is really all about - brilliant performances and the very best of theatre production. Yesterday between 2.15 and 4.15 in the Assembly rooms, I had the great privilege of attending a masterclass of Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood by Guy Masterson.
Productions of this all-too-rare calibre, give us the yardstick by which all future reviews will be measured. Guy Masterson two hour solo performance of Thomas‘s major work Under Milk Wood does not have a parallel, it stands on its own as easily the best production of this piece by any actor. Burton may have had the voice, but Masterson's physical portraits of almost seventy characters, kept a full house in the Music room on the edge of their seats. An audience, I must add who were, in majority, senior enough to have been aware of the original Burton production and were no strangers to Dylan Thomas's wonderful canon.
Guy Masterson's love of Thomas's work was very evident in his 2001 Fern Hill production, but as brilliant as it was, it came a poor second to this wonderful performance. The physical comic portraits by Masterson, of all characters from Mr and Mrs Pugh to the child Gwennie Gwennie were all given individual colours and brush strokes to create a composition to rival Marc Chagall's masterpiece I And My Village.
The greatly deserved standing ovation that he received at the end of his extraordinary two hour performance speaks more eloquently than any words this reviewer could scribe.
Thank you Mr Masterson, for reminding us why we should love great wordsmiths and superb theatre. If you see no other theatre performance at the Fringe, and you see next Monday's only other performance you will see the very best that the Edinburgh Festival has to offer.
Next show 20 August at 2.15pm. Music Hall, Assembly Rooms