Dylan Thomas

To date, over 80,000 people around the world have enjoyed Dylan Thomas: Return Journey. Critics worldwide have heralded the production as a “lyrical tour-de-force,” commending Bob Kingdom’s electrifying performance as Dylan Thomas en route to the White Horse Tavern in Anthony Hopkins’ celebrated directorial debut.

Playing a man who wrestled with the psychological conflict between creative talent and self-destructive impulse, Kingdom’s remarkable portrait of Dylan Thomas offers theater lovers a chance to experience the electrifying presence of Dylan Thomas’ last great lecture tour en route to the White Horse Tavern.
 
Blending the stories and the poetry with incisive comments on aspects of performing the American touring circuit, Thomas (through Kingdom) takes his audience through past and present Wales, through the natural world, and to the one that lies after.

In 1955, Anthony Hopkins was much 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,” says Hopkins.

Under Anthony Hopkins’ minimalist direction, the conduit between stage and seating opens like a formerly locked gate, bringing both performer and audience together in appreciation of the beauty, humour, passion, and wit of Dylan’s words.

Few who watched an early incarnation of Bob Kingdom’s Dylan Thomas at the Chelsea Arts Club could have imagined the international critical acclaim that would follow. Return Journey’s been mounted in Britain, USA, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland, and has moved beyond the English-speaking world to France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey. On Christmas Day 1990, Sky satellite network streamed Kingdom’s Return Journey around the world.
 
Don’t miss your chance to see the farewell tour of this legendary hit show next month at The Cultch, specially reconceived as one of the flagship performances for Dylan Thomas’ centenary celebration.

The Cultch Presents Dylan Thomas: Return Journey

Dates: December 9 to 21: December 9 to 14, 16 to 21, 8 pm; December 13, 14, 20, 21, 2 pm
Opening night: December 9, 8 pm
Venue: Historic Theatre at The Cultch, 1895 Venables Street, Vancouver
Tickets: From $19; available online or via phoning 604-251-1363

Post-show Q&A with the artist on December 10 and 16.

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