INTERNATIONAL director Michael Bogdanov is bristling with pride over the "tremendous start" that his new production of Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood received in Wales.

A standing ovation at Swansea Grand and £90,000 worth of business at Cardiff's New Theatre bodes well for the six-month English tour, which arrives in Hereford soon.

Half Welsh, and a collector of Thomas' first editions, it's a response that would have held special significance for the award-winning director.

Tackling the best known and most performed piece of Welsh theatre is something he felt confident in beginning Wales Theatre Company's five-year package for Swansea City Council.

"Its universality is extraordinary," he said of the piece, which was originally written for radio.

"I'm still astonished by the cascade of words, in an explosion of juxtaposition."

A voyeuristic slice of life in a typical Welsh seaside town - the kind with which Bogdanov is personally familiar - Under Milk Wood recounts the dreams, gossip and waking hours of a cast of singularly normal characters during a Spring day.

"It's a story that can be told in a thousand ways," he said.

"The characters are alive and well, after all these years."

The production commemorates the 50th anniversary of the play's writing and airing.

On September 9, 1953, Thomas delivered a full draft to the BBC, intending to revise it on his return from the USA. But two months later he was dead in New York.

"Thomas writes cheekily of the village whose name spells 'bugger all' backwards," Bogdanov said.

"And it's important to take that as a starting point for the piece.

"The recording by Thomas is both sepulchral and reverent: a tone mirrored by first Richard Burton and later Anthony Hopkins."

Wales Theatre Company's new propless version takes an altogether more irreverent stance, with First Voice played by Russell Gomer - familiar to Ludlow Festival audiences from leads in last year's Shakespeare double-header, which Bogdanov directed.

Preceding the Courtyard production, there will be a free performance of poetry by three local writers, which begins 45 minutes prior to the production.

Accompanying the production will be an exhibition of unique Thomas and Under Milk Wood memorabilia mounted by Geoff Towns, the world's greatest expert on Dylan Thomas.

Under Milk Wood is at Hereford's Courtyard from February 2-4 (01432 359252), Theatr Brycheiniog (01874 611622) from February 12-14 and Malvern Theatres (01684 892277) from June 1-5.

l Poetry performance: See next week's Leisure Times