Dylan Thomas - Return Journey

From words by Dylan Thomas
Performed by Bob Kingdom
Directed by Anthony Hopkins

OTHER BOB KINGDOM SHOW INFO:

THE PART OF BOB KINGDOM WILL BE PLAYED BY AN ACTOR

Dylan Thomas reincarnated. Kingdom IS Thomas!

A chance to experience the electrifying presence of Dylan Thomas's last lecture tour, the last before the White Horse Pub and the legendary seventeenth whiskey. Kingdom's portrayal of his bardic countryman is tangibly heartfelt, without an inkling of actorliness; audiences could swear it was the poet himself on stage.

Blending the stories and the poetry with incisive comments on the nature of performing, of audiences, and of the American touring circuit, Thomas (through Kingdom) takes his audience through Wales, past and present, through the natural world, to the one that lies after. Under Anthony Hopkins' minimalist direction, the conduit between the stage and the seating opens like a lock gate, bringing both performer and audience together in appreciation of the beauty, the humour, the passion and wit of the words of this writer.

Reviews:

"The dry, wry, mischievous manner Kingdom absorbs from Dylan for the tales is bewitching. I could have listened to his spell-binding, word-winding wizardry there for hours." (The Times)

"He weaves a mellifluous vocal spell fully equal to Thomas' verbal one, and creates an actor/author partnership to match the very greatest." (Evening Standard)

"One of this year's highlights" (The Guardian, 1991)

"Bob Kingdom seems to have totally suppressed his own being in his search for union with Dylan Thomas... He has perfect command of the rhythms of language, of the timing of those magically original,, devastating, unsettling or wittily displaced lines and phrases. The delivery and writing merge into one perfectly balanced, beautifully turned performance" (The Scotsman)

"Spell-binding stuff" (The Times)

"Captivating and tireless... Kingdom captured Thomas' curious combination of lush lyricism and dry with without a moment of uncertainty." (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

"wit, and feeling, and rollicking comedy, and even beauty" (The New Yorker)

"what falls from his lips is a series of word pictures, nearly breakneck in their spill, but of such startling clarity that the mind spins along with them and miraculously keeps up. ... The stage is alive with characters, all of them tumbling out of richly descriptive prose to be perfectly captured in Kingdom's shift of voice and attitude." (Boston Globe)

Biographies:

Bob Kingdom: Bob Kingdom grew up in Cardiff, South Wales. Like Dylan Thomas he lived in an Anglicised Welsh environment marked by a tension between two cultures. From here comes a reworking of the English language under the rhythm of Welsh cadences with which Thomas himself was able to colonise the words of the English to surprise, startle and hypnotise. From an early age Bob Kingdom was himself captured by words and language. As a small boy he won literary competitions and distinguished himself in amateur dramatics (amazing adult colleagues with mimicry and an ability to play exceedingly old gentlemen with uncanny conviction.)

In adulthood he quickly established himself in the world of advertising copywriting (pleading guilty to a number of catchphrases and images of the seventies!) Confused with a multiplicity of talents he found himself involved in television voice-overs, poetry readings and as a writer/performer of radio comedy shows (an early member of the satirical Week Ending team, where his Neil Kinnock remains unsurprassed!) In addition to all this he found time to mount his own London art exhibitions.

Few people who saw an early incarnation of Bob Kingdom's Dylan Thomas at the Chelsea Arts Club would have realised the international critical acclaim which would follow, to demand that the show should run seemingly for ever and everywhere. It has been seen in Britain, the United States, Australia and the Republic of Ireland. Indeed it has gone beyond the English speaking world to France, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. On Christmas Day 1990 the Sky satellite network brought Kingdom's Dylan into numerous parlours.

Anthony Hopkins (director)
In 1955 Anthony Hopkins was very taken by Emlyn Williams' one-man show about Dylan Thomas. "For many years I wanted to play Dylan Thomas in either a play or a film. I never had the inclination or the foresight to devise a programme for myself. Then one night I was invited to watch Bob Kingdom's performance in a pub theatre. It was really impressive. A few months later I ventured a suggestion that I would like to 'help out' if he needed an objective 'other eye'. He agreed and said he would like to broaden his performance.

"Working with him has been a revelation, because I realise how passionately he feels and identifies with Thomas. Bob Kingdom not only identifies with Dylan Thomas but sometimes, and often, the two personalities seem to merge. It is a remarkable performance."

Dylan Thomas

visit