I can't ignore this bit, so apologies if I've told this tale before.
My mother grew up in Swansea as a virtual contemporary of Thomas's, and of
course had his Collected Poems which she used to read to me. Like Douglas, I
too in time found his rhetoric an over-rich diet. But I shall never forget
the time my mother and her sister went to see a theatrical performance of
Under Milk Wood in a London theatre. They came back reeling, saying -- "That
man must have overheard every word we ever said." All the dialogue, all the
use of "I" whoever it represents, was utterly true to the speech she heard
around her, and used, growing up.
joanna
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jennifer Compton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2007 4:32 PM
Subject: Re: Theatrical language (Re: The lyric 'I' / "Eye ")
>I met an brit/oz playwright who as a 9 year old in the north of england
>would go into the unlighted cold lino floored front parlour to listen to
>the radio play of a sunday at maybe 8pm?
>
> it could be anything - a trivial farce, a lurid thriller
>
> one day it was Under Milkwood.
>
> It ravished him and made him no good for anything else.
>
> When I heard it it was in wellington New Zealand and I was in the clever
> girls class and we were well prepared to hear a work of genius as our
> english mistress set the needle down into side 1
>
> still it ravished me
>
> but if no one had told me how great it was going to be i would have been
> even more ravished i think
>
> we have a copy and i listen to it sometimes
>
> and as i have worked on radio - as a writer and an actor - i love the
> moment when a young nervous richard burton rustles the pages of his script
> but because his read was so great - they keep that take in
>
>
> ----Original Message Follows----
> From: Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: "Poetryetc: poetry and poetics" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Theatrical language (Re: The lyric 'I' / "Eye ")
> Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2007 09:15:53 -0600
>
> Never played in it, but certainly did enjoy it, listening to, say, Thomas
> himself, or the acted version.
>
> But in some ways, it is interesting precisely because the demands of
> theatre pulled Thomas back from what I now see as the often overwrought
> rhetoric of much of his poetry...
>
> Which, of course, I read when first reading poetry (back in the late 50s,
> when his Collected Poems from New Directions) was the big seller in
> poetry), but don't feel much called back to now - my taste having
> changed).
>
> Doug
> On 8-Jun-07, at 6:19 PM, andrew burke wrote:
>
>>
>>I love Under Milk Wood and have played various roles in it over the years.
> Douglas Barbour
> 11655 - 72 Avenue NW
> Edmonton Ab T6G 0B9
> (780) 436 3320
> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
>
> Latest book: Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
>
>
> Art has to be forgotten: Beauty must be realized.
>
> Piet Mondrian
>
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