A Unique Opportunity for Shropshire Film Goers

This Friday The Old Market Hall Shrewsbury will be showing the critically acclaimed ‘Set Fire to the Stars’. However there is something very special about Friday’s screenings as afterwards the film’s star, Celyn Jones, and the film’s producer Andy Evans, will be in the venue to take questions from the audience.

Based on a true story, the film deals with Welsh poet Dylan Thomas’s tumultuous visit to New York in the 1950’s. In order to deal with his outrageous behaviour Thomas was decanted to the quieter surroundings of the Connecticut woods, even in the middle of nowhere, the cantankerous poet still managed to find an audience for his art and sadly for his aggression and trouble was never far behind.

Celyn Jones who plays the poet, co-wrote the film, and will be answering questions after the screenings said: ‘I was aware of Thomas back during my drama school days in Oxford, but it wasn’t until I wandered into a second-hand bookshop there that the idea for this film came about. Inside, I picked up a copy of Dylan Thomas in America by John Brinnin, the American academic who’d first invited him to the States for a reading tour. And ever since then I’ve wanted to make a film about their relationship. Set Fire to the Stars is very much one of those ‘never meet your heroes’-type stories’

Co-starring Elijah Wood as the put upon John Brinnin, the film has aired at film festivals worldwide and has been compared to the classic ‘Withnail and I’. Producer Andy Evans (originally from Oswestry) said ‘We have had such a great response to the film, it is a fascinating story, brilliantly told and we are all very proud of it. I grew up in Shropshire and I am really looking forward to finding out what county film goers think about the work.’

Set Fire to the Stars runs from 27th February until 5th March. The Question and Answer sessions will take place after the 5.30pm and 8pm showings on Friday 27th February. Further details can be found by visiting The Old Market Hall’s website at www.oldmarkethall.co.uk or by contacting the Box Office on (01743) 281 281.