Gwyn Thomas

I thought, a long time ago, to publish a magazine on theatre in Wales; I wrote to many prominent people associated with theatre in Wales and outside. Some replied that yes they would like to contribute. One was Gwyn Thomas the famous, then, Welsh novelist. He said that the theatre was a love of his life and that he'd be delighted to contribute.
Well, the magazine never saw the light of day but I always appreciated his writing to me to help out.
What surprised me about his letter was his enthusiasm for the theatre. I never would have thought it since he was, as I say, a well known novelist and only a sporadic playwright.
He wrote four or five plays for the theatre but his first, written for George Devine at The Royal Court who had requested a play from him, "The Keep", was his best. It is a wonderful comedy of Welsh life which had a great success for a few years. His later plays never achieved that popularity. And deservedly so. The fact is, I never regarded him as a playwright at all. For one thing everyone in his plays spoke like the author himself who was a great raconteur who achieved a sort of guru celebrity personage on Welsh TV.
We met twice. Once when we both had plays on at The Sherman Theatre, his called "Sap" in the Main Theatre and mine called "Aspects of War" in the smaller Arena Theatre, both set in the first world war. The second time he was very ill, close to death I believe, but he had made a great effort to attend a celebration of Glyn Jones when he made a marvellous speech in praise of the writer.
It's a pity "The Keep" is not seen more often; the other plays aren't up to much I fear. His novels I'm afraid are dated but still enormously funny. His short stories are wonderful and his autobiography is a "must read".