You evoke a lovely scene, Andrew.
jd
On 6/9/07, andrew burke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> I saw 'Under Milk Wood' staged in the open of an evening among trees
> and bushes in a Sunken Garden at the University of Western Australia
> in the extremely late Fifties (back when universities went for culture
> and philosophy, and only begrudgingly accepted engineering students as
> a necessary evil ((there were no Business Studies)) ). I was around
> sixteen and it was a school outing for boarders arranged by a
> wonderful young Jesuit scholastic, our English teacher. I realise now
> that his motivation for the outing was probably selfish, but it had an
> amazing effect on me. The lighting, the sounds of an Australian night,
> the ebb and flow of voices over the tiered garden was magical. What a
> night! Nearly half a century later I still see it all and hear the
> words in Aussie tones - imagine Germaine Greer and Clive James, not
> Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton >g<
>
> Good night ... T'is late here ...
>
>
>
> On 10/06/07, Joanna Boulter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > 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
> > >
> > > _________________________________________________________________
> > > Advertisement: Makeover Your Finances - WIN a $3000 Planning Package
> > >
> http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eletsshop%2Ecom%2FDefault%2Easpx%3Ftabid%3D948&_t=764144777&_r=letshop_emailtaglines_june07&_m=EXT
> > >
> >
>
>
> --
> Andrew
> http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
> http://www.inblogs.net/hispirits
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
>
--
Joseph Duemer
Professor of Humanities
Clarkson University
[sharpsand.net]
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