The Môr the Merrier (Radio Play)

Undermilk Wood & Welsh Language

‘The Môr the Merrier’ is a radio play Inspired by 1950s radio dramas in the tradition of Samuel Beckett and Dylan Thomas. I was brought up in a small village West Wales village in Ceredigion not so far from Laugharne where Thomas grew up. The characters are very loosely based on people I know, upon re-listening to Undermilk Wood I noticed a lot of similarities.

TMTM is loosely based off Dylan Thomas’ 1954 play ‘Undermilk Wood’, a play in which an omniscient narrator invites the audience to listen to the dreams and innermost thoughts of the inhabitants of the fictional small Welsh fishing village, Llareggub = Bugger all spelt backwards. TMTM is set in the town of Ffogob, Ffogob = Bog off spelled backwards.(1)

Ffogob is an imagined 21st-century Llaregub. Both names work linguistically as Welsh town names, Like real places such as Llandudno or Llangranog and Ffostrasol or Ffos-y-ffin. ‘Môr’ is also the Welsh word for sea harkening to the coastal setting and ‘the Merrier’ as it is a large cast of characters.

(1) This is called a ‘semordnilap’, A word that forms another word when its letters are reversed. ‘Semordnilap’ is a reversal of the more well-known word ‘palindrome’; a word, phrase, or sequence that reads the same forwards and backwards.

Historical Context, Gentrification in Wales, and Airbnb

The town next to the one I was brought up in now has only 1/4 homes lived in year-round, meaning 3/4 are second houses or Airbnbs. These changes are made more insidious when a lot of the people being priced out are locals who have been there for generations. West Wales is currently undergoing what has already happened in full force in Cornwall. West Wales and the Valleys have the lowest GDP in northern Europe. This rise in house prices as a result of people buying second homes means that many families who have been in these coastal villages for generations can no longer afford to buy a home.

An event which seemingly few English people seem to have heard of is ‘COFIWCH DRYWERYN’. This is a famous graffitied stone commemorating an event which took place in Llanrhystud, Ceredigion in 1965, in which the Tryweryn Valley was purposely flooded to create a reservoir for Liverpool and Wirral, destroying Capel Celyn village. Around 45 of the village's 60-plus residents were displaced and lost their homes. In response to recent gentrification and displacement of Welsh communities, the graffiti now has more than 50 copies all over Wales. The Môr the Merrier alludes to the friction between locals and newcomers in coastal communities. Often this attitude towards outsiders is conveyed in traditional media as pettiness when in fact it is a much more deep-rooted issue.

Translations & References

Ar lan y Môr – By the Seaside

Ffogob – At first glance linguistically looks like a name of a Welsh place like Ffostrasol, Ffynnon or Fforesrt Goch. Its is actually ‘Bog off’ backwards. An ode to Dylan Thomas’ Llarregub which under the same concept is a semordnilap that sounds like Llandysul or Llangranog but is a semordnilap for ‘Bugger all’

Twp! – Stupid, Thick

Iesu grist – Jesus Christ

Shwdi Boi – Alright boy (informal)
‘Spear tackle arno fe!’ – ‘on him’ more like go spear tackle him in this instance, take him to the floor

Pwll Y Wrach – a series of sea caves under the cliffs of Ceibwr, only locals go as you must swim through a cave to get to it and the English are too scared/ don’t know which sea cave is the entrance. There are sea caves like this in Italy most of which are full of adventure companies

Hwyl Fawr! – Goodbye Cer I Grafu – fuck off

Sospan Fach – Sospan Fach is an absurdist folk song commonly sung at rugby games in south Wales about a saucepan

The Cover