Product Description

“Only your eyes are unclosed to see the black and folded town fast, and slow, asleep”

Completed only a month before Dylan Thomas died, Under Milk Wood is an inspired and irreverent account of life and love in a small coastal village in Wales one spring day. Full of raucous energy and lyrical passion, it is the most complete expression of Thomas' unique perspective on the human condition.

Called “a play for voices” by the author himself, Under Milk Wood premiered in 1953 with Thomas and five American actors reading the parts and was preserved, almost by chance, in this remarkable recording. Here is the author's greatest work rendered as he himself directed, in his own famous voice that captures the lively melodic essence of the work itself.

Featuring Dylan Thomas with Sada Thompson, Nancy Wickwire, Ray Poole, Dion Allen, and Allen F. Collins

This is the only recording ever made with Thomas in the cast, and it owes its existence to the chance thought someone had just before curtain of setting up the little tape recorder that was at hand and laying a microphone on the floor at the center of the stage. Although a studio recording for Caedmon was planned, Thomas did not live to do it. That this recording was not erased or lost or thrown away remains some kind of miracle.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #977234 in Books
• Published on: 1995-04-01
• Released on: 1998-11-04
• Formats: Unabridged, Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Audio Cassette

From AudioFile
Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, who completed Under Milk Wood, his poetic "play for voices," just weeks before he died in 1953, appeared in only one recorded version of that acclaimed work. Here it is, captured by chance when someone placed a tape recorder on the stage for this live performance. Thomas serves as narrator/commentator of this tale of a day in the lives of 53 characters in a small Welsh village; his is a compelling, booming, lyrical voice. His five excellent companion readers, all of them, interestingly, American, match his deftness in what is a somewhat plotless but highly entertaining and touching account of simple people dealing with the complexities of existence. Top marks for this cassette--and thanks to the long-forgotten audiophile who thought to tape the drama. T.H. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Review
"Less than a month before his death in 1953, Dylan Thomas took part in the world premiere of his "play for voices." The character sketches are wonderful, and the actors (Sada Thompson, Nancy Wickwire, Ray Poole, Dion Allen, and Allen F. Collins) deliver them with wit and empathy. The rare chance to heard Thomas, in overblown arcs of elocution, read his own best work is exhilarating." -- -Times Leader

About the Author
Dylan Thomas was born in Swansea, Wales on 27 October 1914. In 1934 his first book of poetry, Eighteen Poems appeared, followed by Twenty-five Poems in 1936, Deaths and Entrances in 1946 and in 1952 his final volume, Collected Poems. He also published many short stories, wrote filmscripts, broadcast stories and talks, did a series of lecture tours in the United States and wrote Under Milkwood, the radio play.

During his fourth lecture tour of the United States in 1953, a few days after his 39th birthday, he collapsed in his New York hotel and died on November 9th at St. Vincent's Hospital. His body was sent back to Laugharne, Wales, where his grave is marked by a simple wooden cross.

In June 1994, his wife, Caitlin Thomas, died in Italy, where she had spent most of the years of her life after the death of Dylan Thomas. Her body is buried next to his.

Customer Reviews

A tiny dingle is Milk Wood . . .
I've never read any of Dylan Thomas's poetry, but when I found a copy of Under Milk Wood for a quarter, I figured it'd be a perfect opportunity to get better versed in both drama and Thomas. I've always heard that he is one of the most depressing poets ever, so I said, "Hey, I love Sylvia Plath and Pablo Neruda. I love Morrissey. I will love this."

But I didn't love it. In fact, I was fairly unimpressed. I waited 95 pages for it to start, and then it ended. There wasn't even an abundance of sadness! I can handle a complete lack of movement within a story as long as it is depressing (I'm a Jim Jarmusch fan, too). This wasn't, though. It was even sort of funny. Not that I have a problem with that, but it was only sort of funny. A few chuckles here and there, but not enough to consider this a comedy.

In fact, I don't know what the hell it is. A Play For Voices? Sure, I guess. Maybe that's the problem: I didn't hear it. I know I can't judge a screenplay (or a play for voices. Whatever) by the way it appears on the page. Maybe this holds up upon performance.

But maybe it doesn't. I only read it, and therefore I have to focus on the piece as a work on the page. It succeeds in being a very detailed character study and it even sets up enough loose ends and possible connections for a novel. However, the play takes place over the course of one day, and it comes off as being just a day. Just another day. When it ended - the day and the play - I was anticipating what would happen next.

Maybe that's where the sadness comes in. These characters are dealing with ghosts in their dreams and their own limitations (the unrefinement of Nogood Boyo, the heartbreak of Polly Garter, the stationary reverie of Captain Cat) on a daily basis. That said, I still need something to happen. I've always championed the idea that life doesn't happen in the grand sweep, it usually happens in the long lulls. I'd have to try pretty hard to defend this play, though. Sure, the language is fantastic and Dylan uses his poetic creativity to paint a pretty picture, but at the end, I said "Hmm. Cool. Who gives a f***?"

Some memorable figures and a wonderful cast of characters
I recently read this while on vacation. The entire cast of characters is wonderful, wonderfully quirky, yet somehow very "normal". It is hard to describe genre-wise as it reads differently than how it was apparently intended - as a play for radio. But it works. A town of 500, with three quaint streets, a postman who reads the mail to all the (illiterate) inhabitants, my favorite couple in literature (Mr. and Mrs. Cherry Owen - she has two husbands, one drunk and one sober)and one of the most touching characters, Bessie Bighead, who was kissed once while not looking and never again despite looking... Fun!

"Time passes. Listen. Time passes."
Written as a "play for voices" for the BBC, this work was originally performed in 1954, with Richard Burton as the First Voice, connecting all thirty-three characters--men, women, and small children. Depicting one full day in the life of a small town in Wales, Thomas shows its motley residents as they awaken, perform their daily tasks, socialize and gossip, and daydream about the past that might have been and the future that may yet offer hope. As is always the case with Thomas, the "play" is full of alliteration and various kinds of rhyme, with nouns and adjectives used as verbs to convey action and sense impressions simultaneously. A wry humor and honesty of feeling make the work engaging for the listener/reader and charmingly illustrative of a time and place now gone.

Individual characters come alive through their own voices and through the gossip of others, spread by the postman and by neighbors. When night falls and the residents retire, their additional losses and disappointments, along with their escapes into dreams, are given voice and poignancy. Polly Garter, with her numerous children by numerous fathers, dreams of Willie Weasel, a very small man who was the love of her life. Captain Cat, the blind bell-ringer, thinks of all the sailors he knew who died at sea and Mr. Pugh dreams of poisoning his wife.

Simple songs add to the realism and the sense of character and place. An elegiac song by Polly Garter, as she remembers Willie and compares him to her other lovers, conveys an almost palpable sadness and makes Polly one of the most memorable characters. A humorous singing game by children adds to the realism, and young Gwenny's song to three very young boys is full of cheeky humor. Filled with the hurly-burly of everyday life in a small town in 1950s Wales, this and A Child's Christmas in Wales are among Thomas's most beloved works. Mary Whipple