Helen Thomson

Helen Thomson in Under Milk Wood, STC, Sydney Opera House, June 2012.

By Elissa Blake

The last time we saw Helen Thomson on the Sydney Opera House stage, she was flushed, breathless and gripping a 19^th century vibrator. Her onstage orgasms in the Pulitzer Prize winning play In The Next Room (or the vibrator play) brought the house down every night. Some of the more spirited climaxes brought a tear to the eye.

“Each orgasm had a little personality of its own,” says Thomson. “They had to tell a story because my character went from being really uptight to being a much looser and happier woman. The director, Pamela Rabe, was quite specific that she didn’t want a fakey orgasm like the one you see in When Harry Met Sally.”

Thomson was nominated for a Helpmann award for her role in the Sydney Theatre Company’s In the Next Room, but it was her next role as the prim, purse-lipped Pearl in Neil Armfield’s production of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, that won her even greater critical notices.

“That role was a dream come true. She is a tragic character but she’s so funny. A lot of humour can come out of anxiety,” she says. “High strung, slightly neurotic characters – that’s my bag!”

Thomson in the STC's production of In The Next Room (or the vibrator play)

Thomson as Pearl in Belvoir's production of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll.

Now Thomson is playing another priggish lady in the STC’s production of Under Milk Wood, the classic radio play by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. “I play five characters including Mrs Pugh, who’s the most hideous uptight bitch you’ve ever met. She’s hilarious because she’s so uptight.”

One of the most famous radio plays ever written, Under Milk Wood was first broadcast on BBC radio in 1954 with Richard Burton as the narrator and an all-Welsh cast. In the Sydney Theatre Company’s new production, Jack Thompson narrates, wandering through the tiny village of Llaregubb and pointing out over 60 characters (played here by 10 actors) as they go about their daily lives.

“When Jack mentions the fisherman are heading down to the bay, suddenly all 10 of us are fisherman in anoraks and gumboots holding these fantastic fish, and then suddenly we change into someone else,” Thomson says.

“We’re enacting the poem but people shouldn’t think, ‘it’s poetry, so it must be all beautiful, beautiful’. Some of the characters are really bawdy, and others are desperately sad. We all get to play the gamut.”

The actors are using their own Australian accents to avoid getting bogged down in any very specific Welsh accent, says Thomson, but the spirit of Wales is evoked in specially commissioned photographs projected through three windows, and in music and singing. “We don’t want the audience sitting there thinking some accents are OK and others are dreadful,” she explains. “I think it sounds fantastic and the singing is beautiful.”

When she’s not in Llaregubb, Thomson lives in the Blue Mountains with her husband, actor David Roberts and their two children. She says the acting life is a juggle but she wouldn’t swap it. “If I was a full time mum I might go potty and if I didn’t have the kids I would certainly go potty, so it’s about finding a balance. My kids are too young to have seen me on stage yet but when they see the Opera House, they say ‘that’s where you work, mummy’. How great is that?”

Under Milk Wood is playing at the Sydney Opera House until July 7. Tickets $45-$90 Bookings (02) 9250 1777

This story was first published in The Sun-Herald on May 27, 2012.

Watch the trailer for Under Milk Wood here.