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Tuesday 1 December 2015

U stands for Under,

Under Milk Wood.

  by Dylan Thomas (1914-1953).

Under Milk Wood  was regarded as the play for voices, it was a radio drama commissioned by the BBC and later adapted for stage and screen.

 Dylan Thomas was a famed poet and writer, also broadcaster. He was born in Swansea, South Wales.

 Whilst Dylan Thomas was staying at New Quay, West Wales he went out early one morning, when the people of the town were sleeping, verses came to mind about the residents. The play was really a short story and initially  was called  'Quite Early One Morning', it was about a mythical village called 'Llareggub', if you reverse the letters it says 'bugger all'.

 Llareggub was a typical Welsh village in South Wales, with terraced houses and one 'ty bach' (little house), and five cottages. In 'Early One Morning' there were lots of ideas and various interesting characters who would later be developed for 'Under Milkwood', they would come out and empty the slops out side of their houses and have a chat with each other.

 An omniscient  narrator invites the audience to listen to the dreams and innermost thoughts of the inhabitants of the fictional Welsh fishing village.

 There are some quirky and amusing characters. One of the main protagonists is Captain Cat , who is blind and who dreams of his lost crew when his ship sank.

Captain Cat  is one of the most important characters and often acts as a Narrator. 

The cast is too long for me to list all the characters but you can learn more on Wikipedia and by googling the title, or view it on you tube with Richard Burton and Liz Taylor  playing lead roles.

  There are also transcripts to read, if you are interested.... Or whatever rocks your boat !

 

Captain Cat's statue at the museum in Swansea.

Sadly Dylan Thomas died in New York aged just 39 years of age, where he was working on Under Milk Wood,  he was literally putting the finishing lines to the play whilst, the actor were waiting to read their scripts.

 He had poor health from childhood, then later became addicted to alcohol .

 Sadly, many gifted people have formed some sort of addiction to alcohol and/or drugs.

 I sometimes think that the pressures of fame is responsible  for their demise. 

 

 
My thanks to the ULTRA UNIQUE Denise for devising ABCW and to Roger our UBIQUITOUS  admin man...and not forgetting his team of helpers who assist him with visiting each site,
Best wishes to all,
stay safe,
Di.
ABCW team.
 

17 comments:

  1. Nice to know about this poet.

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  2. Ultra fascinating - have heard of this play, but am not familiar with it. Must check it out.

    Leslie
    abcw team

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  3. to remember 'old' things can be so wonderful... getting it back under the attention of people who live nou...
    radioplay's are all gone by now... its a pitty realy


    Have a nice abc-day / - week
    ♫ M e l ☺ d y <abc-w-team)

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  4. I always wonder if certain people subconsciously know that they have a finite amount of time on this planet, and do all they can Mozart, e.g.

    ROG, ABCW

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  5. Creative and informative post for U ~ thanks ^_^

    Wishing you a magical week,
    artmusedog and carol

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  6. Good choice! Dylan Thomas was a fascinating personality! Thank you for sharing his ideas .Thank you for your visit and kind wish that it is not to cold here. Well I hope that you are also warm enough. Central heating is wonderful, but I hope that the climate meeting will find a good solution for our planet!
    Wil, ABCWTeam.

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  7. Thank you for sharing this unique man with us.
    I haven't read any of his works for a very long time.

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  8. At this time of year I bring out A Child's Christmas in Wales, - so sad that addiction shortened his life....

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  9. Your use of the word "whilst" made me think of our recent flight on an Airbus. The warning message says, "Whilst seated ...." - Margy

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  10. Okay, you've got me, Di. I've jotted "Dylan Thomas" on my list of things to check out. I love where you took Jane through time for an undercover assignment. She's trying not to fall in love with Genghis, the poor soul. Hmmm, I think you may have given me an idea for the next ABC round with Jane. We shall see. Hugs, Di. :-)

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  11. Thank you all for your kind comments. Again I can't answer each one
    individually but I do appreciate you taking time to drop by,
    Best wishes to all.

    Di.
    ABCW team.

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  12. Thanks for your lovely comment. Btw we had peppermint in church during the sermon.
    I hope you are feeling better now!
    Wil, ABCW team

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  13. This post came from listening to a Desert Island Disk prog, Trubes!

    It helped form a picture of Dylan Thomas so well...

    http://scroblene-webley-bullock.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/sunday-music.html

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway?q=Dame+Julia+Cleverdon&type=all

    ReplyDelete
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I usually like to reply to your comments but for some reason when i do post a reply it just diappears, any advice would be most welcome,Thanks Di x

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