27 – 28 January

A question often arises when considering the lives of great personages: what is the status of their partner? Are they mere witness, muse, support, collaborator or inspiration? Too often the contribution of partners is completely overlooked, if not by biographers then certainly in the public perception. Again, certain artists, writers and general creatives are as well known to the general public for their unconventional or turbulent lifestyle as much as their output. Two of the most fêted twentieth century bohemians coloured the life of Caitlin Macnamara.  Augustus John and Dylan Thomas loom large in writer Mike Kenny’s excavation of one of those lost voices.

Christine Kempell, gloriously disheveled and bar-room ready, bare legged in a dark petticoat, gives a bitter sweet account of her often turbulent relationship with Thomas. But this isn’t a play about the great man, it is definitely about a life spent – or misspent – in support of what some contemporaries were disposed to call genius. Sauntering onto the stage, bottle in hand and bemoaning the fact that she had never had an orgasm in her marriage, indeed was ignorant that there was such a thing, Ms Kempell takes us on a journey over the uneven terrain of a marriage in constant search of a foundation beyond the flashes of devotion and passionate affirmation of love.

Introduced to the bohemian world through her nascent dancing career and being free spirited, it was inevitable that she would attract attention from the unconventional spirits of the age. Famed philanderer, Augustus John, was the first to take advantage and enters her life as the uninvited despoiler of her honour after an afternoon of posing, but it is the other Welshman, Dylan Thomas, poet and pub fixture who was to inform the core and trajectory of her life.

From their first meeting: a romantically inclined girl’s dream with a famous poet, unannounced, laying his head on her lap and declaring they will be married, to the committal in a mental asylum after she smashes a crucifix following Dylan’s death, the play is part narrative and part reflection on a life lived, paradoxically. in the shadows. “I want to be where the action is” she declares, but finds herself living the life of the invisible wife.

Director, Steve Elias, finds plenty of emotional movement in what is a compelling performance by Christine Kempell, whose final, resigned reflection is, ‘The only interesting thing about me is him.’

★★★★☆ Graham Wyles, 28th January, 2023