Under Milkwood - Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas' most famous work. We listened to Richard Burton read on a rather fuzzy CD player but the spirit of the play was not lost and we all enjoyed it, many of us following the text. The play is as relevant now as it was when first written. Its story is at times sad and funny and sometimes even mundane.
  My copy for some reason refers the it as a fairy tale of gnomes - we didn't get that. Though the Welsh are often small - they aren't that small. It also printed the name of the place with one G instead of the two in the manuscript. Those who had Kindles found other discrepancies as the words were sometimes changed for some sort of puritanical reason - not sure why editors think that they can change words written by an author to pander to the sensibilities of some readers. We did discuss the fact that Thomas in so short a book was able to paint such a wonderful picture of life compared to some modern authors who need to write hundreds of additional unnecessary pages - we have mentioned this many times.
  The play tells the story of one village, Llareggub. We enter into the dreams of the inhabitants and rise with them as dawn breaks. We learn of their foibles, their desires and their secrets. As the day passes the villagers go about their business, the postman opens letters, sweets are sold, a husband reads pretends he is reading about the saints when in fact he is reading how to poison his nagging wife. There is unrequited love, there is bigamy - though very amicable - there is laughter and fun in a long marriage and there is the sorrow of lost loves.
  As day ends and nightfall approaches so the village returns to its bed and dreams.
  The format of the play is particular to Thomas. Instead of one narrator he uses a number who interject and tell us who is speaking so for example
Sinbad
Oh, Mr Waldo
First Voice
sighs Sinbad Sailors

which reminds us that this was a radio play though now played many times on stage as I first saw it but in fact found it difficult to follow.

Dylan Thomas was foremost a poet and there are a number of poems in the play which I actually found less convincing while the play itself is so beautifully written that it seems like one long poem - can you make sense of that! His rolled together words, his use of nouns and adjectives as verbs, his metaphors and similes are an English teacher's gift. They are much easier to understand than Ulysses. What about these:
bread-pudding bed
unmelting ice maiden daughter veiled for ever from the hungry hug of his eyes
voice of the vacuum cleaner

we read and we know exactly what he means - that is a rare talent indeed.