Under Milk Wood
by Dylan Thomas
Originally conceived for the radio, "Under Milk Wood: A Play For Voices" by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas is a cornucopia of rich, humorous characters (63 voices!). Exciting action is minimal, but engrossing personalities abound in this glance at "a day in the life" of a typical, tiny Welsh town.
For directors and actors, "Under Milk Wood" is a delight to produce. Each actor usually plays numerous characters, changing personalities with a simple costume or prop change. The scene bounces from roadside to bedroom to shop with no time or room for elaborate set changes. The language is rich and fully accented. Characters ranges from the ghosts of sailors to the proverbial "loose" widow. Sexual innuendo seems to pop up unexpectedly... and sometimes becomes more than just innuendo... just like in a real small town!
The scripts for "Under Milk Wood" that we are using are published by New Directions Paperback. The following is from the jacket cover:
"Here, in the masterpiece completed just before his death in 1953, Dylan Thomas gave fullest expression to his sense of the magnificant flavor and variety of life. A moving and hilarious account of a spring day in a small Welsh coast town, Under Milk Wood begins with dreams and ghosts before dawn, moves through the brilliant, noisy day of the townspeople and closes as the "rain of dusk brings on the bawdy night." As Randall Jarrell wrote: 'It would be hard for any work of art to communicate more directly and funnily and lovingly what it is like to be alive.'
"Dylan Thomas called it 'a play for voices,' and although it was commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation it had its first performances in New York, a series of try-outs in 'concert' form, with Thomas directing and reading several parts. Enthusiastic audiences agreed with the critics, who called it 'probably the richest and certainly the earthiest theatre experience of the season" (Saturday Review) and 'a dazzling combination of poetic fireworks and music-hall humor (N. Y. Times). When it was finally broadcast on the BBC Third Programme, The New Stateman and Nation wrote: 'It is lyrical, impassioned and funny, an Our Town given universality: by comparision with anything broadcast for a long time, it exploded on the air like a bomb -- but a life-giving bomb.'"
