Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2010 – Leon Pownall’s Do Not Go Gentle

Reviewed by Paula Citron

Actor Geraint Wyn Davies has made a one-man cottage industry out of Leon Pownall’s solo show Do Not Go Gentle about poet Dylan Thomas. He first performed it at Stratford in 2002, and has returned again this summer to sold-out houses.

Pownall’s moving tribute is written by a Welshman, is about a Welshman, and performed by a Welshman. There is a bred in the bone connection between the three. Tragically, both Pownall and Thomas died early, the former at 63 from cancer, the other at 39 from alcoholism.

The play is cleverly crafted. A dead Dylan Thomas is looking back at his life, and so has the hindsight to make amusing, and often self-deprecating comments. Pownall also included a great deal of Thomas’ poetry so one really gets a sense of the man and the artist.

If you can snag a ticket, the show is not to be missed.

Do Not Go Gentle continues at Stratford’s Studio Theatre until Sept. 11.

Do Not Go Gentle
Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2010
Written by Leon Pownall
Directed by Dean Gabourie after Leon Pownall
Performed by Geraint Wyn Davies
Studio Theatre, Jul. 2 to Sept. 11