NEW YORK—Part and parcel of every Christmas season is wistful nostalgia with the conjuring of memories from times gone by. Recollections may grow dimmer with each passing year, yet they still have a strong emotional pull. So it is with the Irish Repertory Theatre’s returning production of Dylan Thomas’s “A Child’s Christmas in Wales.” In it, a now-older Thomas, looks back on those times, and can’t remember if it snowed for six days straight when he was 12 or 12 days straight when he was 6.
Adapted for the stage and directed by Irish Rep artistic director Charlotte Moore, this marks the production’s 7th revival since its premiere in 2002.
A Christmas Classic
Dylan Thomas (1914–1953), who originally wrote the story for radio, demonstrated a clear gift for lyricism as the text’s words and phrases never fail to evoke a striking images. His masterful writing depicts an icy sea, empty snow-blown streets with the occasional bundled up pedestrian trudging by, and a deserted house with a sinister presence, as young Dylan and his friends discovered one cold, snowy Christmas Eve.
Also recalled in loving detail was a childhood hunt for the “dreaded and terrible-whiskered saber-clawed arctic tiger.” Thomas and his companions eagerly followed the creature’s tracks in the snow, arms filled with snowballs, ready to strike at any passing adversary.
