Under the Milky Forest (radio play)

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Boat named after the fictional location

Unter dem Milchwald ( English Under Milk Wood ) is a radio play by the Welsh writer Dylan Thomas , which was originally broadcast on January 24, 1954 by the BBC on BBC 3 . Directed by Douglas Cleverdon (1903–1987), Richard Burton took over the role of the narrator.

Thomas wrote the piece in 1953, a few days before his death, as a commissioned work for the BBC. After being broadcast for the first time in the following year, it quickly became the most famous radio play in radio history. In the same year it was the first radio play to be awarded the Prix ​​Italia .

A German version was first broadcast by NWDR Hamburg on September 20, 1954 . Erich Fried translated and edited the extremely difficult original text into playable German. Many well-known actors were involved in the production as speakers. Up to the present four other productions have been created in Germany, most recently in 2006, a dialect radio plays in Low German ..

The piece was later adapted for the stage and filmed in 1972 and 2015 (director: Kevin Allen ). The director of the film version of 1972 took Andrew Sinclair .

content

It's spring. The night is Bible black. No moon and no stars light up the sky. This is how the day begins in the small fictional fishing village of Llareggub on the Welsh coast. Sensual metaphor, songs, voices and numerous sound effects paint an audio picture of the life of a village community during a single day. The omniscient narrator acquaints the listener with the dreams and innermost thoughts of the inhabitants. So we overhear the conversations in a seafarer's tavern, visit the schoolhouse, get an insight into the secret bridal chambers of unmarried girls, learn about the dreams of the blind captain Cat and hear about the love life of the bigame baker Dai Bread. Even people's self-talk and thoughts are not hidden. The listener becomes aware of the lovers' letters and many of their sighs and looks into the abyss of a human soul, where fantasies of suppressed lust for murder spread.

Production overview of the German radio plays

Version from 1954

Speaker:
  • Publications:

Version from 1969

Speaker:

Version from 1990

Speaker:

Version from 2003

  • Under the Milk Forest - Production: MDR ; Composition: Peter Kaizar ; Editing and direction: Götz Fritsch . First broadcast: November 11, 2003 | 88'02 minutes.
Speaker:
  • Awards:
    • German Audio Book Award 2006 Best of all (CD Edition)
    • 2nd place hr2 audio book best list June 2005 (CD edition)
    • 2nd place hr2 audio book best list July 2014 (CD edition with productions by BBC, NDR Kultur and mdr figaro )
  • Publications:
    • CD edition: Der Hörverlag 2005
    • CD edition: The Hörverlag 2014

Low German version from 2006

Speaker:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Why Under Milk Wood is the greatest radio play ever by Jasper Reese in "The Telegraph" on March 27, 2014.
  2. ↑ Vincent Canby : Under Milk Wood (1971) , New York Times, January 22, 1973
  3. ↑ ARD audio game database (Unter dem Milchwald, NWDR Hamburg 1954)