BURTON

Corn Exchange, Dorchester

RICHARD Burton was one of the great characters of the acting world and fellow Welsh actor Rhodri Miles tells the story of his turbulent life and career in a one-man performance that left the audience stunned and in emotional turmoil.

This fascinating award winning study of a complex man begins on his 46th birthday and our understanding of Burton’s disastrous alcohol dependency grows with every new fact we learn about his life.

With only a chair and a trolley full of drink as props, the Games of Thrones actor – who looks amazingly like his subject - gives a mesmerising performance as he brings to life the twelfth child of a drunken miner father and a mother who died when he was just two years old, hardly the best start in life for anyone but which Burton overcame with amazing success.

As we hear about his career, busy sex life and multiple marriages, the production, written by Gwynne Edwards and directed by Gareth Armstrong, introduces hilarious tales about his fellow actors while also contemplating his impoverished background and Welsh tendency for dark moods.

But happily, the overall atmosphere, helped along with endless glasses of drink, is one of wry humour and Burton’s love of the theatre and especially Shakespeare. His film career is dismissed as simply in order to make enough money to keep his multitude of ex wives in comfort.

The audience were indeed privileged to enjoy this memorable evening brought to the town by Dorchester Arts, an organisation that is bringing ever increasing quality entertainment to Dorset although this particular production will be a hard act to beat.

MARION COX