Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood, ‘a play for voices’ on radio, stage and television

Wrigley, A. (2014) Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood, ‘a play for voices’ on radio, stage and television. Critical Studies in Television, 9 (3). pp. 77-88. ISSN 1749-6020 doi: 10.7227/CST.9.3.8

Abstract/Summary

Dylan Thomas' radio play Under Milk Wood was performed on stage and television soon after its BBC Radio premiere won the Prix Italia in 1954. Textual analysis of the 1957 BBC Television production demonstrates how it contributed new resonances deriving from the medium's performative conventions and communicative strategies. The nature of the aesthetic values sought by the professional critic and the domestic viewer are evaluated: it is observed that the comparative approach of critics, focusing overwhelmingly on the work's originating form, inhibits full engagement with the innovative creative possibilities of performances of Under Milk Wood in forms of representation with a visual dimension.