In the NEWS
Carmarthen Journal 16th August 2006

Emotional play about Dylan's wife
by Sarah-Jane Williams

A NEW play about Caitin Thomas, Dylan's wife written specially for the Laugharne Festival, will be performed this weekend.

Caitlin and Dylan: A Play About Youth, was written by Jackie Cornwall, a writer for Cardiff-based Everyman Theatre company with ideas contributed by Maggie Nicholls, also an actor with the company.

This emotional play, with only four characters .— Dylan, Caitlin, Dylan's father Jack and a landlady, explores how Caitlin overcame alcoholism to rebuild her life in Italy.

Maggie, a poet and social worker, suggested presenting poetry readings at the Laugharne Festival. The idea, coupled with her interest in Caitlin's life and combined with the playwriting impetus of Jackie, grew into a new drama.

Maggie sajd: "We wanted to change the focus to Caitlin. I read her book Double Drink Stories and then started researching her—I discovered she had written four books and wanted to be a dancer.
"She gave up drinking when she was 60 and rebuilt her life. I'm a social worker and have an idea of how hard it is to beat alcoholism. She was a remarkable woman," Maggie added that the company was excited about performing the play in Caitlin's hometown.

She said: "There isn't a better place to do it."
The play explores how Dylan and Caitlin first met, their relationship, what they sacrificed for each other and how they were influenced by their own past. Festival secretary Lorraine Costley is delighted the play was written specially for the festival. She said: "We attended the first read through at the Chapter Arts Centre and were delighted with it."

The play will be performed at the Millennium Hall on Friday and Saturday at 7.30pm. Tickets are £8 and include a drink. Call 01994 427689 to book.

Biographies:
Jackie Cornwall

Jackie Cornwall is a writer, teacher, lecturer, feminist and part-time revolutionary. She wrote her first poem at the age of six, and has been writing ever since. She has worked in Cornwall and Wales and in Turkey, where she organised the English Teaching Theatre of Izmir. Her plays for the stage have included A Double Life (about the poet W H Auden), The Burning of Rawlins White (produced by Everyman Theatre in 2005 to commemorate Cardiff’s centenary) and Revolution Square. She  also writes and performs poetry, and in 1997 was awarded a Chair for poetry at the National Eisteddfod in Bala. She devised and wrote the multi-media presentation Letters to Che Guevara (2005).

Jackie has homes in Andalucia and Cardiff but at present earns a living working with excluded young people in Newport. She is addicted to travel and goes to Cuba whenever she can. Her most impressive achievement so far has been the successful production of five children and four grandchildren.

Maggie Nicholls

Maggie Nicholls is a social worker who has lived in Cardiff for most of her life. She has been a member of Cardiff Everyman Theatre for a number of years and has acted in several of their plays. She has written and performed her own poetry for approximately twenty years.

When Maggie read in the Everyman Newsletter that the promoters of the Laugharne Festival were looking for theatre performers she initially suggested to Jackie Cornwall that they might put together a poetry session.

Jackie then came up with the idea that as they would be in 'Dylan Thomas' country they might write something together about Dylan. Maggie had been interested in Caitlin Thomas for a long time and suggested that the focus of the play should be on Caitlin. And so the idea was born and what was initially a suggestion about poetry grew into a play.