Under Milk Wood (2008)

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Under Milk Wood (2008)

by Dylan Thomas

with the permission of David Higham Associates

Music: Thomas Hewitt Jones

Choreography: Darius James

Costume Design: Yvonne Greenleaf

First Voice: Gwyn Vaughan Jones

Paintings for projections: Jeremy Thomas

Video projections: Darius James

Music: Thomas Hewitt Jones

Orchestrated and produced for Independent Ballet Wales

by Thomas Hewitt Jones at Court Lane Music, London UK

Musicians:

Violin: Kevin Weaver, Simon Hewitt Jones, David Worswick, Gill Allison

Viola: John Hewitt Jones, Peter Foggitt

Cello: Oliver lallemant, Peter Gregson, James Sherlock, Daniel Francis

Piano/Keyboards: Peter Foggitt, Thomas Hewitt Jones

Vocalist: Susanna Gray

Thanks to:

Paul Baxter, Delphian Records

Mark Wherry of Remote Control Productions, Santa Monica

Under Milk Wood is Dylan Thomas’ most famous and enduring work now translated into over 50 languages. A favourite since its first broadcast with Richard Burton in January 1954, it brilliantly conjures the intimate dreams and innermost desires of the inhabitants of Llareggub – a small fictional sea-town somewhere in Wales.

Subtitled “A Play for Voices”, Dylan Thomas’ magnum opus carries the double legacy of the author’s extensive work for radio – a medium for which he had an almost intuitive grasp – and his skill and ability as a poet.

A polyphonic evocation of a day in the life of an imaginary small Welsh seaside town, Thomas’ play – “a green leaved sermon on the innocence of men” – visits in turn the inhabitants of Llareggub (read it backwards!) while they sleep, when they wake and go about their daily activities, as the night falls. Balancing a rhythmic, densely poetic language with a nuanced ear for the musical cadences of speech, the play’s gentle, affectionate charm and humour resonate to create a deeply textured portrait of a community responding almost mythically to the awakening of spring.

Under Milk Wood is a sensitive, often comic, examination of Welsh life in which the people are viewed as being particularly blessed. They are the “chosen people of His kind fire in Llareggub’s land” and the town retains its own magic and holy significance despite its faults.


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