Running from Wednesday 14th – Saturday 17th of August, Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas directed by Jim Nolan is Waterford Youth Arts Summer 2024 Project with a cast of 32 youths from 14 – 19 years old. UNDER MILK WOOD takes the form of an emotive and hilarious account of a spring day in the fictional Welsh seaside village of Llareggub. We learn of the inhabitants' dreams and desires, their loves and regrets.

This has been a long time coming for Jim, after a trip to Wales in the 1990’s and then reading the paly he fell in love with Under Milk Wood.

“Returning to Ireland, I read and fell in love with the play but an ambition to produce it at Red Kettle, where I was then Artistic Director, was predictably compromised by the resources required to mount a large-scale professional production.  All good things sometimes do come to those who wait however, and I am grateful to Ollie and Cathy and all the team at WYA for the opportunity to realise an ambition that has lain dormant in the more than thirty years since my visit to Laugharne.”

Ben Hennessy’s set design, with assistance from Martin Hourigan and Alan Flynn, transports us to a fictional Welsh village, Natasha Everitt on movement, Éadaoín Breathnach’s on music direction, Richard ‘Lippy’ Collins’s lighting design, and Rita Drohan on costumes. With Jim Nolan director, Sinéad Hourigan stage manager and assistant Director Shane Flynn, together they all breathe life into Dylan Thomas’s poetic exploration of twenty-four hours where dreams intertwine, love blooms, and regrets linger.