( Program Cover )

Translations
by Brian Friel

Manus Sarah Jimmy Jack Maire Doalty Bridget Hugh Owen Captain Lancey Lieutenant Yolland

Cory C. Shagensky Robyn McGrath Sebastian Kunnappilly Michelle Martin Molly M. Gallup Hope Pulick Patrick J. Schleisman Clifford J. Kirvan Jonathan E. Sroka Timothy C. Doherty Jr.

DIRECTORS NOTES

Brian Friel kept a diary during the process of writing Translations in which he expresses his initial intention to write a play about "language and only language." Not surprisingly, however, considering how politically central the language question is historically in Ireland, he discovered how extremely difficult it would be to limit the play to an examination of language. In his diary he asks: "How does this eradication of the Irish language and the substitution of English affect this particular society? How long can a society live without its tongue?" Translation from Irish to English is not simply an exercise with words - it is a forced corruption of a people and a culture that victimizes British and Irish alike.

Friel's affection and compassion for the characters in Translations allow him to focus on what is truly important in the Irish-British conflict, indeed, in any conflict: the human factor - how people are affected by events, political and otherwise. Lt. George Yolland is just as much a victim of his romanticism and unconditional love of Ireland as Hugh is a victim of his past and a future that has no place for him. Portraying these characters as he does, Friel encourages us to stretch beyond the realm of this conflict and into the unlocalized realm of the human spirit.

About the Playwright

A Catholic native of Northern Ireland, presently living in Muff, County Donegal, Brian Friel was born outside the town of Omagh, County Tyrone, in 1929. Having abandoned his plans for the priesthood, he studied at St. Joseph's Teacher Training School in Belfast in 1949-50. In 1954 he married Anne Morrison, with whom he has five children. For ten years following his graduation from St. Joseph's, Friel taught school in Londonderry, but in 1960, encouraged by regular publication of his stories in The New Yorker magazine, he left the teaching profession to write full time.

In 1964, the Dublin Theatre Festival produced Friel's first hit, Philadelphia, Here I Come that was to establish Friel's critical reputation not only in Dublin but within a few years, in New York and London as well. Other well known plays include, The Loves of Cass McGuire, Faith Healer, The Freedom of the City, Lovers (Winners and Losers), Three Sisters (after Chekhov), and Dancing at Lughansa.

In 1980, Friel and actor, Stephen Rea, founded Field Day, a theatre company dedicated to bringing professional theatre to cities throughout the island and to reevaluating Ireland's cultural and political state. Translations (1980) was Field Day's first production.