It seems fitting that Michael Bogdanov's Wales Theatre Company, with its populist zeal, should choose a musical adaptation of Colleen McCullough's turbulent saga of forbidden passion as its final production. This is no small challenge theatrically, however. The Thorn Birds is a whopper of a tale, known to many from its incarnation as a popular TV mini-series in the 1980s.
McCullough's paring down of her novel for stage partly succeeds, with a zippy first act establishing the key players in this tale of parched emotional lives in the inhospitable Outback. At best, working in tandem with Gloria Bruni's occasionally stirring songs, this production brings to life the novel's core: how women struggle, survive and repeat their mothers' mistakes.
Bogdanov's production has its powerful moments, too, especially in showing female isolation and the self-regarding pomp of the Catholic church. Helen Anker gives us a captivating Meggie Cleary; her journey from youthful optimism to bitter pragmatism is the highlight of the evening.
Where the production struggles is in creating a credible backdrop, both psychological and physical, to the moments of transgression and disappointment. Beyond a handful of scenes, the staging is no-frills, and the mini-series's famous moment of Meggie and Ralph's consummation in the crashing waves takes place on a sleeping bag under a picture of a sunset. This wouldn't matter if there was a sizzle to the pair's interaction, but that snappy first act, and some weak writing for Ralph (Matthew Goodgame) - "I can't! I'm a priest!" - leaves this vital connection undeveloped. Like rather too much in this plucky yet uneven adaptation, their mutual yearning is sketched, but never truly felt.
