Under Milk Wood

Under Milk Wood is the famous play for voices and is one of the events screened by the BBC to mark the centenary of the birth of Dylan Thomas. The play has an omniscient narrator that invites you to listen to the dreams and inner thoughts of the residents of a fictional small fishing village in Wales.

Featured locations include the poet's favourite pubs in New York and west Wales. More importantly it was filmed across the globe from New York, Los Angeles to Laugharne and Cardiff.

The BBC have gathered some Welsh voices ranging from music such as Tom Jones who plays Captain Cat to Charlotte Church, Bryn Terfel and Katherine Jenkins. There are Welsh superstars from across the pond who give the time to take part such as Matthew Rhys, Ioan Gruffudd, Michael Sheen, as well as veterans such as Sian Phillips and Jonathan Pryce.

The cast seem to be having fun whilst reciting the play which makes it infectious. Its the first time I have heard the play, having heard so much of the Richard Burton rendition. I can guess its not for everyone but the visual tricks taken by the director to make this accessible as well as the starry Welsh cast makes this worthwhile viewing.

Described as "a play for voices," UNDER MILK WOOD has had some famous interpreters, notably Dylan Thomas himself (in the first New York performance) and Richard Burton - in Douglas Cleverdon's legendary BBC broadcast, still available for commercial purchase.

Produced to celebrate the centenary of the author's birth, Pip Broughton's production for BBC Wales assembles a stellar cast from locations across the globe - Cardiff, Laugharne, New York, London and Los Angeles. They include Sir Tom Jones, Bryn Terfel, Charlotte Church, Ioan Gruffudd, Jonathan Pryce, Sian Phillips and Katherine Jenkins. Together they offer a joyful interpretation of UNDER MILK WOOD, each playing their parts direct to camera while delivering their lines with due recognition of the piece's verbal pyrotechnics. They prove beyond doubt just what a brilliant writer/poet Thomas was, possessed of the unique ability to communicate the sound as well as the sense of words, putting them together in memorable combinations.

Stylistically speaking, Broughton's production makes considerable use of dissolves, creating a dreamlike world that emphasizes the connection between life and death inherent in Thomas' piece. There is no great divide between the two: characters speak to us from the dead just as the poet himself speaks to viewers, even though it is sixty-plus years since his death at the premature age of thirty- nine. The locations are kept deliberately unspecified - although we are aware that the actors have been filmed in different parts of the globe. This is once again a deliberate strategy Broughton employs to emphasize how the piece speaks to everyone across time and space.

UNDER MILK WOOD describes a day in the life of the fictional town of Llareggub (one of Thomas' favorite jokes, as the name is actually the epithet "Bugger all" spelled backwards). Sometimes the actors in Broughton's production get the pronunciation wrong (using the BBC's less suggestive amendment "Llareggyb" instead), but this oversight does not detract from the overall effect of the production which celebrates Thomas' Welshness; he never lost his feeling for the country that nurtured him, as can be seen through his language.

Broughton's production is a memorable celebration of the work of a great poet, and deserves a wider release. I do hope that BBC Wales choose to release it on DVD or for digital download as soon as possible.