ADVENTURES IN SKIN TRADE Set for Arts Centre Melbourne, 8/5-8

An unfinished novel by 20th century literary giant Dylan Thomas has been adapted for the stage and is coming to Arts Centre Melbourne courtesy of award-winning Welsh theatre company Theatr Iolo from August 5 - 8. Adventures in the Skin Trade is a gloriously surreal coming-of-age story about Samuel Bennett, who leaves his home in Wales to pursue a life in London.

Published posthumously in 1955, Dylan's text has semi-autobiographical themes and comprises three short stories. Thomas had intended to develop three of his short stories into a coming-of-age novel that would be a sequel to his autobiographical novel, Portrait of an Artist as a Young Dog. The story has been 'finished' and adapted for the stage by writer Lucy Gough, who has written extensively for TV, radio, film and the stage. She has been shortlisted for the BBC Wales Writer of the Year awards and the John Whiting Award and was a recipient of an Arts Council of Wales Creative Wales Award.

This is only the second time the Thomas estate and the granddaughter of the acclaimed poet has granted the rights to adapt one of his stories for the stage. The only other professional UK stage adaptation to date was by Andrew Sinclair, which was performed at Hampstead Theatre, London in 1966. Theatr Iolo presented Adventures in the Skin Trade as part of the centenary celebrations of Thomas' birth in 2014.

The production follows Samuel Bennett as he leaves his home in south Wales to pursue a career in London. Setting out with an attitude of reckless, nihilistic purpose, he encounters a nightmarish city. A room full of furniture, an assortment of bizarre characters and an embarrassing first sexual experience in a cold bath. Audiences are invited to follow Samuel as he meanders through this dreamlike world, all with a beer bottle stuck on his little finger.

"Adapting it for the stage has been a wonderfully wild, funny and surreal journey into the unknown. The novel is at the same time both fiercely crazy and yet also sensitively observant of a teenage boy's interior world and rite of passage,' said writer Lucy Gough.

Director Kevin Lewis said the work should inspire younger audiences to explore Thomas' work.

"What I do hope is that our younger audiences, who might not know much about Dylan Thomas or be that interested in him, will see our production and then want to find out more about his work, the themes of which are pretty timeless and universal."

Theatr Iolo is an award-winning theatre company based in Cardiff which has been creating powerful and compelling work for more than 25 years. As one of the UK's most respected theatre companies, Theatr Iolo has toured extensively throughout Wales and the UK, and internationally across Europe, Russia and South Korea. They have performed in theatres, forests and even in a cowshed in Austria!

Arts Centre Melbourne presents Theatr Iolo's
Adventures in the Skin Trade
7pm, 5 - 8 August
Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne
Tickets: $25

Bookings: artscentremelbourne.com.au or 1300 182 183

To post a comment, you must register and login.