THE ESSENTIAL DYLAN THOMAS Includes Under Milk Wood – Richard Burton and cast Return Journey to Swansea – Dylan Thomas and cast MODERN ∼ CLASSICS Poetry and Stories Read by Richard Bebb • Jason Hughes • Philip Madoc • Michael Sheen NA434312D Preface The voice of Dylan Thomas, on paper or on advance and 10 per cent royalty deal a recording, is unmistakable. His rich play of thereafter, to fix a date to record. He failed language and images informed all his work to show on the scheduled day, but did and it was reflected in his distinctive manner make the next date (22 February 1952) at of performance which, like his life, was the Steinway Hall in New York. The large and vivid. All this rightly made him a recording engineer was Peter Bartók, son of personality as well as a poet – certainly, he the composer Béla Bartók. Thomas recorded left an unforgettable impression on all those poems and, when he realised there was he met. It was one reason why, in the latter space left on the LPs, added Memories of part of his career, he was so popular on the Christmas. American lecture and poetry circuit. This, of course, is a marvel for history He was, perhaps, the first outstanding but presents a particular challenge for poet-performer of the recording era. Many subsequent performers of his work. of his recordings remain, from those he Performance, like fashion, is shot through made for the BBC and also for the far- with the style of the period, and Thomas’s sighted Caedmon label in the US. We owe a style was declamatory and grand, in a way debt to the enterprise of both for marking that can sound dated in the 21st century. Thomas’s unique talent and putting him in His recorded poetry readings were often the studio, even though doing this was closer in style to public performance for an often a fraught, knife-edge business. He audience in a hall than for the intimate, nearly forgot to arrive at the BBC studios on one-on-one situation of an audiobook. Yet his first engagement – when radio was live! his natural talent and his charisma make his – and his first Caedmon recording was a recordings speak to us across the decades, similarly improvisatory experience. The two giving us a unique insight into the way in Caedmon founders, Barbara Cohen and which the poet himself thought of his work. Marianne Roney (just 22 years old), had So actors coming now to his stories, pursued him with telephone calls and poetry and broadcast programmes, which eventually persuaded him, with a $500 they will undoubtedly have heard and 2 absorbed, have to put their memories of his Thomas himself, which is why we have inflections and his personal dramatic view to brought together this unusual programme one side, in order to let their own featuring great historical recordings as well expression sing. This wasn’t the case with as new performances, given by some of the the first BBC recording of Under Milk Wood. finest Welsh actors of our time. Actors None of the actors who went into that speak for their day, and poets for all time. In studio in January 1954 had heard Thomas’s the end, we hope that you will find the own performances in New York – so they conjunction as vivifying to listen to as we could come to it entirely fresh. did to prepare. Yet the The Essential Dylan Thomas is Nicolas Soames designed to celebrate the many facets of Cover picture: Photograph of Dylan Thomas c. 1940; courtesy of AKG Images, London / Ullstein bild 3 UNDER MILK WOOD : A PLAY FOR VOICES 1 FIRST VOICE To begin at the beginning: 5:12 2 FIRST DROWNED Remember me, Captain? 1:38 3 FIRST VOICE From where you are… 0:30 4 MR EDWARDS Myfanwy Price! 1:18 5 FIRST VOICE Come now, drift up the dark… 1:44 6 MOTHER This little piggy… 2:16 7 FIRST VOICE Now, in her iceberg-white… 0:43 8 MRS OGMORE-PRITCHARD Mr Ogmore! 1:09 9 FIRST VOICE In Butcher Beynon’s… 0:28 10 ORGAN MORGAN: Help! cries Organ Morgan… 0:28 11 FIRST VOICE At the sea end of town… 0:27 12 UTAH WATKINS (Yawning) Thirty four, thirty five… 3:07 13 FIRST VOICE Now behind the eyes and secrets… 2:54 14 FIRST VOICE Time passes. Listen. Time passes 1:58 15 REV. ELI JENKINS Dear Gwalia! I know there are… 2:00 16 FIRST VOICE Now, woken at last by the out-of-bed… 0:23 17 LILY SMALLS Oh, there’s a face! 2:14 18 FIRST VOICE Mary Ann the Sailors… 2:39 19 FIRST VOICE Now frying-pans spit… 1:19 20 FIRST VOICE Mr and Mrs Cherry Owen… 1:32 21 FIRST VOICE From Beynon Butchers in Coronation Street… 1:10 22 FIRST VOICE Up the street, in the Sailors’ Arms… 2:38 23 CAPTAIN CAT (Softly, to himself) Maggie Richards, Ricky Rhys… 3:50 4 24 FIRST VOICE People are moving now, up and down… 3:28 25 FIRST VOICE There’s the clip clop of horses… 0:46 26 FIRST WOMAN Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard 1:01 27 FIRST VOICE Outside, the sun springs down… 1:32 28 FIRST VOICE And in Willy Nilly the Postman’s dark… 2:34 29 SECOND VOICE …herring gulls heckling down to the harbour… 2:07 30 FIRST VOICE The music of the spheres is heard distinctly… 2:33 31 POLLY GARTER I loved a man whose name was Tom… 3:44 32 FIRST VOICE And the morning school is over… 2:45 33 FIRST VOICE And the shrill girls giggle and muster around him… 1:46 34 GOSSAMER BEYNON I don’t care if he is common… 1:12 35 FIRST VOICE In the blind-drawn dark dining-room of School House… 3:31 36 FIRST VOICE Lord Cut-Glass, in his kitchen full of time… 4:41 37 FIRST VOICE Captain Cat, at his window… 4:12 38 FIRST VOICE The child says, and then she forgets him too. 1:23 39 SECOND VOICE The afternoon buzzes like lazy bees… 3:58 40 FIRST VOICE Now the town is dusk. 0:58 41 MR PRITCHARD You first, Mr Ogmore 1:30 42 REV. ELI JENKINS Every morning, when I wake… 1:52 43 FIRST VOICE Dusk is drowned forever until tomorrow. 1:57 44 FIRST VOICE Blind Captain Cat climbs into his bunk. 0:57 45 FIRST VOICE Mr Mog Edwards and Miss Myfanwy Price… 1:16 46 FIRST VOICE The thin night darkens. 0:46 5 RETURN JOURNEY read by Dylan Thomas and cast 47 NARRATOR It was a cold white day in the High Street… 4:58 48 NARRATOR I went out of the hotel into the snow… 6:02 49 NARRATOR And he hurried on, into the dervish snow… 5:23 50 NARRATOR The Hall is shattered… 5:55 51 NARRATOR Even now, on the frozen foreshore… 4:37 QUITE EARLY ONE MORNING read by Dylan Thomas 52 Quite early one morning in the winter in Wales… 3:19 53 The town was not yet awake. 3:16 54 And climbing down again and up out of the town… 3:01 55 Oh, the town was waking now… 2:50 POEMS read by Dylan Thomas 56 Lament 4:23 57 Poem on his birthday 6:43 58 And death shall have no dominion 1:51 59 Fern Hill 3:52 60 Do not go gentle into that good night 1:33 MEMORIES OF CHRISTMAS read by Philip Madoc 61 One Christmas was so much like another in those years… 5:12 62 Now out of that bright white snowball of Christmas… 4:08 63 We returned home through the desolate poor sea-facing streets… 2:58 6 THE PEACHES read by Jason Hughes 64 The grass-green cart, with ‘J. Jones, Gorsehill’ painted… 5:06 65 He backed the mare into Union Street… 6:34 66 ‘Can I go and see the pigs?’ 4:51 67 Gwilym’s chapel was the last old barn before the field… 4:26 68 The best room smelt of moth balls and fur… 6:44 69 Down the thick dingle Jack and I ran shouting… 7:07 70 Our door was open. 5:22 A VISIT TO GRANDPA’S read by Jason Hughes 71 In the middle of the night I woke… 3:32 72 In the morning I woke from a dream of fiery horses… 2:15 73 When we came to Llanstephan village… 4:35 74 ‘Where are we going?’ I asked 3:00 THE FOLLOWERS read by Michael Sheen 75 It was six o’clock on a winter’s evening. 4:47 76 The barmaid, with gold hair and two gold teeth in front… 4:18 77 Outside Rabiotti’s café, Leslie said… 4:50 78 All over the dripping town… 3:51 THE OUTING – A STORY read by Philip Madoc 79 If you can call it a story. 4:06 80 On Sunday evening, after Bethesda… 4:21 81 The charabanc drew up outside… 4:56 82 Time clouded over, the cows wondered… 3:35 7 POEMS From 18 POEMS 83 The force that through the green fuse read by Philip Madoc 1:27 From DEATHS AND ENTRANCES 84 The conversation of prayers read by Richard Bebb 1:32 85 A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London read by Philip Madoc 1:13 86 Elegy read by Philip Madoc 1:15 87 Poem in October read by Jason Hughes 2:55 88 The hunchback in the park read by Philip Madoc 1:41 89 A Winter’s Tale read by Richard Bebb 8:48 90 In my craft or sullen art read by Jason Hughes 0:51 91 Lie still, sleep becalmed read by Jason Hughes 1:08 92 Fern Hill read by Richard Bebb 3:31 From IN COUNTRY SLEEP 93 Over Sir John’s hill read by Philip Madoc 3:20 94 Poem on his Birthday read by Michael Sheen 5:46 95 Do not go gentle into that good night read by Philip Madoc 1:21 96 Lament read by Philip Madoc 3:19 From TWENTY-FIVE POEMS 97 Was there a time read by Philip Madoc 0:36 98 And death shall have no dominion read by Michael Sheen 1:58 Total time: 4:53:09 © The Trustees for the Copyrights of Dylan Thomas 8 Under Milk Wood – The Cast First Voice Richard Burton Second Voice Richard Bebb Captain Cat Hugh Griffith Rosie Probert Mary Ann Sailors Mrs Dai Bread Two Rachel Roberts Mrs Willy Nilly Mae Rose Cottage Polly Garter Diana Maddox Mr Mog Edwards Dafydd Havard Myfanwy Price Sybil Williams Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard Dilys Davies Mr Ogmore David Close-Thomas Mr Pritchard Dai Bread Ben Williams Willy Nilly Postman Butcher Beynon Meredith Edwards Gossamer Beynon Gwenllian Owen The Rev.