Dylan a Shakespeare

Mae 23 Ebrill eleni yn nodi 400 mlynedd ers marwolaeth William Shakespeare a hefyd 452 o flynyddoedd ers ei enedigaeth. Dechreuodd gariad Dylan Thomas at Shakespeare o oed cynnar a pharhaodd trwy gydol ei fywyd.

‘When he was very small I used to say to his daddy: “Oh, Daddy, don’t read Shakespeare to a child only four years of age.” And he used to say: “He’ll understand it. It’ll be just the same as if I were reading ordinary things.” So he was brought up on Shakespeare.’

Roedd atgofion am blentyndod Dylan gan ei fam Florence yn dangos dylanwad geiriau Shakespeare arno o ddechrau ei fywyd ac mae hyn wedi’i hatgyfnerthu gan hanesion eraill amdano yn dyfynnu o Richard II tra oedd yn mynychu ysgol un athrawes Mrs Hole yng Nghilgant Mirador.

Mae Dylan a’i dad yn cael eu cofio am eu darlleniadau o waith Shakespeare yn Ysgol Gramadeg Abertawe. Dywedodd Trevor Hughes am ei ffrind Dylan: ‘He used to recite Shakespeare to the class, and he’d walk up and down the room reciting. You could tell he wasn’t there – he was on a stage somewhere. And he put so much feeling, so much expression into it’.

Yn y 1940au roedd gwaith darlledu Dylan yn cynnwys amrywiaeth o ddramâu Shakespeare. Ym mis Ionawr 1947 ysgrifennodd at ei rieni:  ‘The day after that Dyall & I took part in ‘Richard the Third’ on the Overseas Services of the BBC. Eastern & Overseas Services I now do quite a lot of work for: scripting, acting & reading.  They do a potted Shakespeare play a week. Last week it was Titus Andronicus, which I’d never read and probably never will read again, – but it was great fun to do….. And for the Shakespeare series I mentioned, I’m arranging the programme on ‘Merchant of Venice’.

Roedd yr actor John Laurie – sy’n adnabyddus erbyn hyn am chwarae Preifat Frazer yn Dad’s Army, yn y 1940au ond a fu’n enwog am ei berfformiadau Shakespeare ar y llwyfan – yn adnabod Dylan: ‘He was interested in the fact that I had played all the big parts in Shakespeare and that kind of thing, and he obviously would like himself, unquestionably, he’d have loved to have been an actor…Our first real poet-dramatist since Shakespeare.’

Cafodd cariad Dylan at Shakespeare a’i ddoniau actio eu cyfuno ar ei ail daith darlithio i Ogledd America lle perfformiodd ddetholiadau o King Lear yn yr Amgueddfa Celf Fodern ym mis Chwefror 1952, gan nodi’n hunananghymeradwyol:  ‘and a fine King Lear I’ll look in my little shiny suit’.

Bydd cyfres o ddigwyddiadau gan Gwmni Theatr Fluellen yng Nghanolfan Dylan Thomas a Theatr y Grand Abertawe eleni yn dathlu Shakespeare a’i ddylanwad, gyda’r digwyddiad cyntaf yn cael ei gynnal yn y ganolfan ar 23 Ebrill, ‘The Soul of the Age’.

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