ABSTRACT
Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood is sub-titled ‘a play for voices’ and was originally written for the radio. It departs from the normal convention of dialogic, conversational exchanges in favour of creating meaning by interweaving voices. The voices in Murder in the Cathedral are those of the women of Canterbury who operate as a chorus within the play. The use of voices seems to depart from the central ingredient of dramatic action which is normally realised in the tension and conflict created through exchanges between characters. In a drama about a village which is facing a crisis the voices of a past generation are heard when a similar crisis was threatening many years. Alternatively in a village drama the voices at night may simply represent the dreams of the characters as they sleep. Community is also relevant to the use of voices as chorus because the technique involves an articulation of communal rather than individual utterances.
