History: Celebrated Welsh playwright dies in Manhattan [dramaturg's desk]

From the Dramaturg’s Desk: November 7-13

It was this week in 1953 that Welsh poet and playwright Dylan Thomas died in New York City. On November 4 of that year, Thomas—who was famously enthusiastic about alcoholic beverages—went on a drinking binge at the White Horse Tavern in Greenwich Village and died five days later. Up until his death, he was revising Under Milk Wood, his “play for voices.” As late as October 1953, he was marking changes in the script for a solo presentation of the play at Tenby Arts Club in his home country; also that month, he performed the part of First Voice at the BBC and in a full-cast reading in New York.

Thomas’s ironic acceptance of his own suggestion that one “not go gentle into that good night” prevented him from finishing the edits of his play. There is evidence that the poet’s demise began long before that fateful night, but he did go out drinking at the White Horse Tavern. When he returned to his room at the Chelsea Hotel, he allegedly boasted, “I’ve had eighteen straight whiskeys. I think that’s the record.” While some dismiss the claim as apocryphal, it no less adds to the Thomas legend. Soon after reaching his room, he began to hallucinate and, en route to St. Vincent’s Hospital, fell into a coma. He was merely 39 when he died at the hospital on November 9.

While Under Milk Wood was unfinished when Thomas passed, it has had a rich production history, including the January 24, 1954, BBC radio broadcast (with Richard Burton taking over Thomas’s role as First Voice), a run on Broadway, and a film with Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. It is intriguing that Thomas’s swan song was a piece of theatre; he had received his greatest acclaim as a poet, but he left this world as a dramatist. Milk Wood was hardly his first experiment with theatre, however: in school, he dabbled in acting, and he performed for a couple of years with the Little Theatre, beginning in 1932. Reviewers described Thomas’s performing style as excessively declamatory and noted his difficulty with physicality. His oratorical quality, which theatre critics tended to view as over-the-top, earned Thomas plaudits when he read his poetry. Arguably, his strained experiences with acting planted the seed for Thomas to write a piece of drama in which his sole function was to deliver vibrant narration: he could shine without worrying about physical gestures. Since that time, Under Milk Wood has earned a permanent place in the canon of English-language drama. The opening passage, which Thomas originally spoke himself and which starts, “To being at the beginning…” has also served as a useful voice and speech exercise for actors. And regardless of the play’s genesis and the controversy over the author’s death, most would agree that both the work and the life of Dylan Thomas are remarkable.

Russell M. Dembin is a theatre educator and freelance dramaturg. Past production dramaturgy credits include the Drama Desk-nominated world premiere of Underground and the U.S. premiere of GBS at The Clockwork Theatre; the New York premiere of “Finding the Way” at Manhattan Theatre Source; and Annie Get Your Gun at Albany’s Park Playhouse, which featured a historically accurate recreation of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and an accompanying exhibition, “Annie Oakley: A Natur’l History,” in honor of Annie Oakley’s 150th birthday. You can reach him at Russ.Dembin@thecallboard.com.