Under Milk Wood

Dylan Thomas - Audio CD

and other Plays - The 1954 Premiere Radio Recording

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Under Milk Wood and other plays - Dylan Thomas - Audio CD

Brand New (still shrink wrapped):    2  CDs

The famous 1954 BBC radio recording of Thomas' 'play for voices', Under Milk Wood, with Richard Burton as First Voice. Also starring Hugh Griffith and Rachel Roberts.

"To begin at the beginning:" Under Milk Wood is one of Dylan's most famous works. It is a 'play for voices' telling the story of a day in the life of the inhabitants of the small Welsh village of Llareggub. There is Captain Cat, surrounded by fish that "nibble him down to his wishbone" and dreaming of Rosie Probert; Mog Edwards, "a draper mad with love"; Organ Morgan, listening to the music in Coronation Street with "spouses...honking like geese and the babies singing opera". "And you alone can hear the invisible starfall..." of their hopes and dreams as the inhabitants of the town awake and a new day begins.Under Milk Wood opens as a small village sleeps, and quietly, almost covertly, an omniscient narrator imparts the secrets of its residents. The film follows a typical day in their atypical lives. Writer Dylan Thomas's eye for the absurd captures wonderfully rich, memorable characters, such as the retired school master who dreams of slipping arsenic to his poisonous wife, and Captain Cat, the blind ex-mariner whose wisdom now serves as a kind of vision. Yet the ordinariness of the residents, highlighted through their humour, hypocrisy and carnal desires, ensures that the village remains a credible place, albeit viewed in a state of heightened reality, as though the audience is learning of its lively secrets through 90 minutes of intimate and lyrical gossip.

This is largely divulged through passages recited by Richard Burton who starred as the 'first voice' for the play's debut when it was broadcast by BBC Radio in 1954, two months after Dylan Thomas' death. He reprised this central role for the film version, delivering a more strident performance darkened by a sneering contempt for the world which his character examines. His then-wife, Elizabeth Taylor, appears at her most beautiful and the 'Who's Who' of a cast also includes Peter O'Toole, Victor Spinetti and a youthful David Jason. The village in Under Milk Wood is called Llareggub, which spelt backwards hints at Thomas's mischievous approach to the play.

About Dylan Thomas:

Dylan Thomas was born at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, in Swansea, Wales. His father, David, who taught English Literature at the local Grammar School, brought his son up to speak English; his mother, Florence, spoke Welsh. His middle name, Marlais, came from the bardic name of his uncle, the Unitarian minister Gwilym Marles (whose given name was William Thomas). He had one sister, Nancy, eight years his senior.

His formal education began at seven, at Mrs. Hole's Dame School. He later attended the boys-only Swansea Grammar School in the Mount Pleasant district of the city. It was in this school's magazine that Thomas saw his first poem published. He left school at 16 to become a reporter for 18 months.

His childhood was spent largely in Swansea, with regular summer trips to visit his mother's family on their Carmarthen farm. These rural sojourns, and the contrast with the town life of Swansea, provided inspiration for much of his work, notably many short stories, radio essays and the poem Fern Hill. He was considered too frail to fight in World War II, so he served the war effort by writing scripts for government propaganda.

Early work

Thomas wrote half his poems and many short stories when he lived at the family home. And death shall have no dominion is one of the best known works written at this address. His highly acclaimed first poetry volume, 18 Poems, was published on December 18, 1934. The publication of Deaths and Entrances in 1946 was a major turning point in his career. Thomas was well-known for being a versatile and dynamic speaker, best known for his poetry readings.[5] His powerful voice would captivate American audiences during his speaking tours of the early 1950s. He made over 200 broadcasts for the BBC. Often considered his greatest single work is Under Milk Wood, a radio play featuring the characters of Llareggub, a fictional Welsh fishing village. Richard Burton starred in the first broadcast; he was joined by Elizabeth Taylor in a subsequent film.

Marriage and children

Dylan Thomas met his wife, Caitlin Macnamara, in a Fitzrovia pub in the Spring of 1936. A drunken Thomas proposed marriage on the spot, and the two began a courtship.

On July 11, 1937, Thomas married MacNamara at Penzance register office. They had three children. The marriage was tempestuous, with rumours of affairs on both sides; Caitlin had an affair with Augustus John before, and quite possibly after, she married Thomas. It is widely suspected that Thomas' tumultuous personal life was a direct result of his frequent and heavy drinking. Their first child was born on January 30, 1939, a boy whom they named Llewelyn Edouard (died in 2000). He was followed on March 3, 1943 by a daughter, Aeronwy. A second son, Colm Garan Hart, was born on July 24, 1949.

Alcoholism and death

Thomas liked to boast about his drinking, saying "An alcoholic is someone you don't like who drinks as much as you do." During an incident on November 3, 1953, Thomas returned to the Chelsea Hotel in New York and exclaimed, "I've had 18 straight whiskies; I think this is a record."

During a speaking tour at New York, Thomas became sexually involved with Katinka Loeser, the wife of writer Peter De Vries. De Vries caught the two together and challenged Thomas to a drinking contest. De Vries was a much bigger man, and Thomas lost. He collapsed on November 9, 1953 at the White Horse Tavern, in Greenwich Village, Manhattan after drinking heavily; he later died at St Vincent's Hospital. The primary cause of his death is recorded as pneumonia, with pressure on the brain and a fatty liver given as contributing factors. His last words, according to Jack Heliker, were: "After 39 years, this is all I've done." Following his death, his body was brought back to Wales for burial in the village churchyard at Laugharne. His wife died in 1994, and was buried alongside him

Under Milk Wood and other plays - Dylan Thomas - Audio CD