Raw and Exposed - the story of Dylan Thomas's Wife

Caitlin

Light, Ladd and Emberton

Chapter Arts Centre

Thursday 30^th Oct

With so many events discussing and dissecting the work and life of Dylan Thomas you would be forgiven for having lost interest in the great Welsh poet. But in amongst all the predictable revivals of his work there have been some real hidden gems. One of these gems is Caitlin, a thrill-a-minute, dance theatre production exploring the life of Thomas’s wife.

The audience sit in a circle, in the middle of an empty hall, they are attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Thomas’ battle with alcohol has been well documented, but the struggle of his wife Caitlin is less well known. It was 20 years after Dylan’s death that Caitlin attended her first AA meeting. The show begins with her first confession “Hello, I’m Caitlin and I’m an alcoholic” – from here we see Caitlin’s life laid bare, raw and exposed.

Intense and exhausting, the choreography didn’t let up for a moment. Eddie Ladd and Gwyn Emberton throw themselves, literally, into the performance head first. The movement, directed by Deborah Light, really captured the aggression and passion of the Thomas’ marriage, flipping between tender game playing and brutal violence. The tightrope between love and hate is thin and this couple fell from a great height many times.

Ladd and Emberton - photograph by Warren Orchard 

Moments of speech punctuated the momentum. Eddie Ladd as Caitlin was completely captivating every time she spoke, the audience hanging on every word. The text could have been teased out a little more, to add more detail and texture to the piece but perhaps it is a good thing to leave the audience wanting more.

The accompanying score is the only grievance. Often the heavy music felt intrusive and out of place. The real moments of genius where when you could hear the physical exertion of the performers in the slam of their bodies on the floor and in their ragged breath.

The few props were innovatively used - the spare chairs in the circle becoming a straightjacket, a pram, a bed, a pedestal. Images from Caitlin’s traumatic life were revealed to the audience only to be violently thrown away again.

“My husband is a very famous poet, I was going to be a very famous dancer,” Caitlin tells us, “I thought it was going to a truce between his brains and my body”. Of course, in reality the battle between the two never reached a truce despite their marriage lasting through numerous infidelities on both sides. Vitally Caitlin never got to realise her dream of becoming a dancer. For this one hour Eddie Ladd is able to live that terrifying dream in Caitlin’s place.