Hell-raiser’s last bender

Press, 26 January 1984, Page 15

Hell-raiser’s last bender

Ray Henwood, known in New Zealand mainly for his role as Hugh in “Gliding On,” is receiving rare reviews in Australia. Henwood’s show, “Nogood Boyo,” is about the hellraising, hard-drinking, womanising poet, Dylan Thomas. The actor took the tale of the legendary Welshman’s last few hours of consciousness and fashioned it into a one-man, two-hour show. The result entranced theatre-goers when the play came to Sydney as part of the festival in 1981, and atthe end of its official run was transferred to the larger Everest Theatre at the Seymour Centre, where it again played to packed houses. This week, Ray Henwood returned in “Nogood Boyo” to the even bigger York Theatre, writes Melanie Whitehouse in the “Australian” newspaper. Henwood’s fascination with Thomas began during his boyhood in Wales, where he attended the school Swansea Grammar. Thomas’s early writings were about an area Henwood knew and loved, and he was inspired to write the play because he felt he could “bring something to the portrayal.” If his audiences and the critics’ rave reviews are anything to go by, he succeeded, writes Ms Whitehouse.

“To an actor, Thomas offers great theatrical possibilities because of his lifestyle,” said Henwood. “He was a drinking man, he loved to be in bars and to talk to people. This play is set in the bar where he had his final drinking session. “He told his mistress, Liz Reitell, that he was going out for a drink. He was away for about an hour and a half and when he returned he said: “I have just had 18 straight whiskies, I think that’s a record”. The follow-

ing afternoon he went into a coma and died four days later. “I thought it was a wonderful theatrical concept to use that bar and imagine what might have happened. We know it was his last bender. He doesn’t, and it gives the play a lovely bitter-sweet flavour.” During the time he is on stage, Henwood gets through a bottle of bourbon and a packet of filterless cigarettes. The “alcohol” is actually green ginger cordial, but the

cigarettes are real. “It’s the hardest part of the night, smoking a packet of them,” said Henwood. Hen wood, now a New Zealander, said his life did not resemble Thomas’. “I drink and I smoke, a pipe not cigarettes, and I have most of the vices I suppose Thomas had — but in such a small percentage as to make it just interesting” Married, with a six-year-old son, Dafydd Morgan — a name of which Thomas would have been proud — Henwood has had a taste of what life must have been like at times for Thomas. “The loneliness of the one-man tour is interesting. Last time I was in Sydney, I went on to Melbourne and I was sitting in a bar when I had a twinge of what Thomas must have felt when he was on lecture tours of the United States between 1951 and 1953. I realised it had been about five weeks since I had spoken to anybody except on stage.” It was America which recognised Thomas’ brilliance before his death, whereas Britain — except in literary circles — virtually ignored him. “There is some hope we can take ‘Nogood Boyo’ to the States,” said Henwood. “To do that lecture circuit that Thomas himself did would be a fantastic experience.”