‘Under Milk Wood’ Quietly Mesmerizes at Off Ramp : Off Ramp’s ‘Milk Wood’ Mesmerizes

Dylan Thomas’ classic play “Under Milk Wood” was originally meant to be performed on radio, but you would hardly know it from the deeply sensual, vibrantly staged new version at the Off Ramp Theatre in Hollywood.

Here, perhaps as memorably as in his great poems, Thomas used precise, astonishingly descriptive language to make the ordinary extraordinary. Though the text merely follows a day in the life of a tiny Welsh backwater, the poet’s dazzling words illuminate that seemingly dreary existence like bolts of lightning.

Admirably harnessing that power, first-time director Jill Ackles’ production has the quietly mesmeric quality of a dream. The eight-member cast, on a stripped-down set with a table and a few chairs, plays a total of 35 characters, from the Walter Mitty-ish Mr. Pugh (Patrick Kearney) to the rakish quack Mr. Waldo (Morgan Rusler) to the redoubtable, twice-widowed Mrs. Ogmore Pritchard (Eva Hedberg).

This group--along with colleagues Marja Adriance, Betsy Burke, Gannon Daniels, William Grueneberg and Gabriel Liebeskind--are especially good at capturing Thomas’ irreverent humor. By providing their own sound effects (a meowing cat, for instance, or footsteps on cobblestones), they also create a haunting series of leitmotifs that linger long after the final curtain.

Viewers might understandably grow impatient with Thomas’ lyrical narrative and long for outright dramatization. But this production proves that “Under Milk Wood” is every bit as effective in live performance as over the airwaves.

* “Under Milk Wood,” Off Ramp Theatre, 1953 Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends June 17. $10 (213) 662-8155. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.