THE ESSENTIAL DYLAN THOMAS - Naxos AudioBooks

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THE ESSENTIAL DYLAN THOMASIncludesUnder Milk Wood – Richard Burton and castReturn Journey to Swansea – Dylan Thomas and castMODERNCLASSICS Poetry and StoriesRead by Richard Bebb Jason Hughes Philip Madoc Michael SheenNA434312D

Prefaceadvance and 10 per cent royalty dealthereafter, to fix a date to record. He failedto show on the scheduled day, but didmake the next date (22 February 1952) atthe Steinway Hall in New York. Therecording engineer was Peter Bartók, son ofthe composer Béla Bartók. Thomas recordedpoems and, when he realised there wasspace left on the LPs, added Memories ofChristmas.This, of course, is a marvel for historybut presents a particular challenge forsubsequent performers of his work.Performance, like fashion, is shot throughwith the style of the period, and Thomas’sstyle was declamatory and grand, in a waythat can sound dated in the 21st century.His recorded poetry readings were oftencloser in style to public performance for anaudience in a hall than for the intimate,one-on-one situation of an audiobook. Yethis natural talent and his charisma make hisrecordings speak to us across the decades,giving us a unique insight into the way inwhich the poet himself thought of his work.So actors coming now to his stories,poetry and broadcast programmes, whichthey will undoubtedly have heard andThe voice of Dylan Thomas, on paper or ona recording, is unmistakable. His rich play oflanguage and images informed all his workand it was reflected in his distinctive mannerof performance which, like his life, waslarge and vivid. All this rightly made him apersonality as well as a poet – certainly, heleft an unforgettable impression on all thosehe met. It was one reason why, in the latterpart of his career, he was so popular on theAmerican lecture and poetry circuit.He was, perhaps, the first outstandingpoet-performer of the recording era. Manyof his recordings remain, from those hemade for the BBC and also for the farsighted Caedmon label in the US. We owe adebt to the enterprise of both for markingThomas’s unique talent and putting him inthe studio, even though doing this wasoften a fraught, knife-edge business. Henearly forgot to arrive at the BBC studios onhis first engagement – when radio was live!– and his first Caedmon recording was asimilarly improvisatory experience. The twoCaedmon founders, Barbara Cohen andMarianne Roney (just 22 years old), hadpursued him with telephone calls andeventually persuaded him, with a 5002

absorbed, have to put their memories of hisinflections and his personal dramatic view toone side, in order to let their ownexpression sing. This wasn’t the case withthe first BBC recording of Under Milk Wood.None of the actors who went into thatstudio in January 1954 had heard Thomas’sown performances in New York – so theycould come to it entirely fresh.Yet the The Essential Dylan Thomas isdesigned to celebrate the many facets ofThomas himself, which is why we havebrought together this unusual programmefeaturing great historical recordings as wellas new performances, given by some of thefinest Welsh actors of our time. Actorsspeak for their day, and poets for all time. Inthe end, we hope that you will find theconjunction as vivifying to listen to as wedid to prepare.Nicolas SoamesCover picture: Photograph of Dylan Thomas c. 1940; courtesy of AKG Images, London / Ullstein bild3

1234567891011121314151617181920212223UNDER MILK WOOD : A PLAY FOR VOICESFIRST VOICE To begin at the beginning:FIRST DROWNED Remember me, Captain?FIRST VOICE From where you are MR EDWARDS Myfanwy Price!FIRST VOICE Come now, drift up the dark MOTHER This little piggy FIRST VOICE Now, in her iceberg-white MRS OGMORE-PRITCHARD Mr Ogmore!FIRST VOICE In Butcher Beynon’s ORGAN MORGAN: Help! cries Organ Morgan FIRST VOICE At the sea end of town UTAH WATKINS (Yawning) Thirty four, thirty five FIRST VOICE Now behind the eyes and secrets FIRST VOICE Time passes. Listen. Time passesREV. ELI JENKINS Dear Gwalia! I know there are FIRST VOICE Now, woken at last by the out-of-bed LILY SMALLS Oh, there’s a face!FIRST VOICE Mary Ann the Sailors FIRST VOICE Now frying-pans spit FIRST VOICE Mr and Mrs Cherry Owen FIRST VOICE From Beynon Butchers in Coronation Street FIRST VOICE Up the street, in the Sailors’ Arms CAPTAIN CAT (Softly, to himself) Maggie Richards, Ricky Rhys :541:582:000:232:142:391:191:321:102:383:50

T VOICE People are moving now, up and down FIRST VOICE There’s the clip clop of horses FIRST WOMAN Mrs Ogmore-PritchardFIRST VOICE Outside, the sun springs down FIRST VOICE And in Willy Nilly the Postman’s dark SECOND VOICE herring gulls heckling down to the harbour FIRST VOICE The music of the spheres is heard distinctly POLLY GARTER I loved a man whose name was Tom FIRST VOICE And the morning school is over FIRST VOICE And the shrill girls giggle and muster around him GOSSAMER BEYNON I don’t care if he is common FIRST VOICE In the blind-drawn dark dining-room of School House FIRST VOICE Lord Cut-Glass, in his kitchen full of time FIRST VOICE Captain Cat, at his window FIRST VOICE The child says, and then she forgets him too.SECOND VOICE The afternoon buzzes like lazy bees FIRST VOICE Now the town is dusk.MR PRITCHARD You first, Mr OgmoreREV. ELI JENKINS Every morning, when I wake FIRST VOICE Dusk is drowned forever until tomorrow.FIRST VOICE Blind Captain Cat climbs into his bunk.FIRST VOICE Mr Mog Edwards and Miss Myfanwy Price FIRST VOICE The thin night 6

4748495051525354555657585960616263RETURN JOURNEY read by Dylan Thomas and castNARRATOR It was a cold white day in the High Street NARRATOR I went out of the hotel into the snow NARRATOR And he hurried on, into the dervish snow NARRATOR The Hall is shattered NARRATOR Even now, on the frozen foreshore QUITE EARLY ONE MORNING read by Dylan ThomasQuite early one morning in the winter in Wales The town was not yet awake.And climbing down again and up out of the town Oh, the town was waking now POEMS read by Dylan ThomasLamentPoem on his birthdayAnd death shall have no dominionFern HillDo not go gentle into that good nightMEMORIES OF CHRISTMAS read by Philip MadocOne Christmas was so much like another in those years Now out of that bright white snowball of Christmas We returned home through the desolate poor sea-facing streets :521:335:124:082:58

64656667686970717273747576777879808182THE PEACHES read by Jason HughesThe grass-green cart, with ‘J. Jones, Gorsehill’ painted He backed the mare into Union Street ‘Can I go and see the pigs?’Gwilym’s chapel was the last old barn before the field The best room smelt of moth balls and fur Down the thick dingle Jack and I ran shouting Our door was open.A VISIT TO GRANDPA’S read by Jason HughesIn the middle of the night I woke In the morning I woke from a dream of fiery horses When we came to Llanstephan village ‘Where are we going?’ I askedTHE FOLLOWERS read by Michael SheenIt was six o’clock on a winter’s evening.The barmaid, with gold hair and two gold teeth in front Outside Rabiotti’s café, Leslie said All over the dripping town THE OUTING – A STORY read by Philip MadocIf you can call it a story.On Sunday evening, after Bethesda The charabanc drew up outside Time clouded over, the cows wondered :184:503:514:064:214:563:35

83848586878889909192939495969798POEMSFrom 18 POEMSThe force that through the green fuse read by Philip MadocFrom DEATHS AND ENTRANCESThe conversation of prayers read by Richard BebbA Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in Londonread by Philip MadocElegy read by Philip MadocPoem in October read by Jason HughesThe hunchback in the park read by Philip MadocA Winter’s Tale read by Richard BebbIn my craft or sullen art read by Jason HughesLie still, sleep becalmed read by Jason HughesFern Hill read by Richard BebbFrom IN COUNTRY SLEEPOver Sir John’s hill read by Philip MadocPoem on his Birthday read by Michael SheenDo not go gentle into that good night read by Philip MadocLament read by Philip MadocFrom TWENTY-FIVE POEMSWas there a time read by Philip MadocAnd death shall have no dominion read by Michael :461:213:190:361:58Total time: 4:53:09 The Trustees for the Copyrights of Dylan Thomas8

Under Milk Wood – The CastFirst VoiceSecond VoiceCaptain CatRosie ProbertMary Ann SailorsMrs Dai Bread TwoMrs Willy NillyMae Rose CottagePolly GarterMr Mog EdwardsMyfanwy PriceMrs Ogmore-PritchardMr OgmoreMr PritchardDai BreadWilly Nilly PostmanButcher BeynonGossamer BeynonThe Rev. Eli JenkinsMrs Dai Bread OneMr PughMrs PughSinbad SailorsCherry OwenMrs Cherry OwenNogood BoyoOrgan MorganMrs Organ MorganWennyRichard BurtonRichard BebbHugh GriffithRachel RobertsDiana MaddoxDafydd HavardSybil WilliamsDilys DaviesDavid Close-ThomasBen WilliamsMeredith EdwardsGwenllian OwenPhilip BurtonGwenyth PettyJohn Huw JonesMary JonesAubrey RichardsJohn Ormond ThomasLorna DaviesDillwyn OwenJohn Glyn-JonesOlwen BrookesNorma JonesThe Three Boys: Ian Griffith, John Watts and Philip CysterChildren’s songs and singing game: the children of Laugharne SchoolProduced by Douglas Cleverdon. Recorded 24th January 1954. Broadcast and issued on LP 1954.9

Under Milk Wood – A Short HistoryOn 25 January 1954, the BBC’s ThirdProgramme broadcast a new ‘Play forVoices’ by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas,who had died suddenly two months earlierin New York. The work was called UnderMilk Wood, and it was recognised instantlyas something quite out of the ordinary, bothin terms of the drama itself and theperformance.It presented, in a remarkably vivid,engagingly elliptical way, a portrait of asmall Welsh town, Llareggub. Here was a24-hour slice of a community cut throughthe strata of small-town life to bring thelistener past the front doors, past theniceties, into the hearts and minds of thepeople themselves. We’re let into theirthoughts, memories and feelings with theoutside world running its own concurrentexistence.Now, half a century after that firsttransmission, it has become a classic ofradio, perhaps the greatest radio play ever –an unforgettable ‘comedy of humours’, asthe critic Kenneth Tynan called it. It was,without question, the pinnacle of creativityin British radio, coming at a time when themedium had not been marginalised by TV,when millions still gathered around their‘wireless’ to listen as a family.Under Milk Wood casts such a strongshadow over Dylan Thomas’s work that, inthe 21st century, it is easy to think that itemerged fully formed in a short space oftime, a moment when writer, performersand medium met and gelled into a classicevent. But this was not really the case. Itwas a very special event, certainly. Everyonewho participated in that recording wasaware that something special was takingplace. It might have been partially fuelled bythe dramatic circumstances: the recentdeath of Thomas himself, an unequivocalfeeling that here was a script that was muchmore than just an ordinary 90-minute radioplay, and the fact that Richard Burton, theyoung classical actor of the moment, leadan outstanding cast. And there was a highoctane atmosphere in the studio itself formany reasons: five days of rehearsal hadbeen set aside – an unusual length even inthose days – and there was a fair amount ofpre-recording (including children’s voicesfrom Dylan Thomas’s hometown ofLaugharne); by contrast, Richard Burtonhimself was only able to come to thefinal rehearsal because of Shakespereancommitments at the Old Vic; and while at10

least it was not a live broadcast –transmission was the following day – it wasin the early days of tape, and editingopportunities were fairly minimal.The sense of anticipation surroundingthe occasion was underlined by the unusualinterest of Harley Usill, far-sighted founderof the spoken-word record label Argo, whoagreed even before the recording to releasethe broadcast as an LP. His judgement wasunerring: it is said to have sold over twomillion units – on LP, tape and now CD –over the years.Though sudden in its final appearance,Under Milk Wood was the culmination of alife’s work for Dylan Thomas. It has beencalled the ‘Welsh Ulysses’, and Joyce’smasterpiece certainly did lay seeds inThomas’s mind. As early as 1932, inconversation with his mentor Bert Trick,Thomas mused about doing a ‘WelshUlysses’; and there are clearly similarities:one town, 24 hours, the inner speechinterwoven with exterior world, and thesense of everyday events as mythical. Hisword sense was also shot through withhumour: it was as early as 1932 or 1933that Thomas first came up with the name ofLlareggub for the town. When Crick wassurprised at such a Welsh word, Thomasadvised him to read it backwards.And it was as ‘Llareggub’, and later ‘TheTown That Was Mad’, that the concept of24 hours in a small town survived andmutated over the following two decades.Llareggub is in fact the name of a womanwho appears in a stark story called TheBurning Baby that Thomas had written inthe 1930s; but there are many instances ofwords, names, phrases and, above all,atmospheres that first appear in stories,poems, scripts, letters and conversationsbefore eventually reaching their final andfinest form in Under Milk Wood.Throughout the 1940s, Thomas playedwith the idea of ‘Llareggub’. Initial sketchesconcentrated on painting pictures of thetown and its inhabitants. Then heconsidered adding a storyline based on aWelsh town enclosed by barbed wire andcalled ‘The Town That Was Mad’. He hadmentioned that it was to be partially basedon Laugharne, the Welsh sea town that hehad made his home. Thomas evenconsidered a play in which people ofLaugharne would play themselves. ‘They areso convinced that they’re absolutely sanenorma

6 RETURN JOURNEY read by Dylan Thomas and cast NARRATOR It was a cold white day in the High Street 4:58 NARRATOR I went out of the hotel into the snow 6:02 NARRATOR And he hurried on, into the dervish snow 5:23 NARRATOR The Hall is shattered 5:55 NARRATOR Even now, on the frozen foreshore 4:37 QUITE EARLY ONE MORNING read by Dylan Thomas Quite early one