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| Brian Friel: Ireland's great theatrical explorer | Brian Friel: Ireland's great theatrical explorer |
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| Brian Friel, who has died aged 86, was the finest Irish dramatist of his generation. His work covered a wide variety of themes: exile and emigration, the political Troubles of Northern Ireland, the subjective nature of memory. But Friel’s diverse output, spanning a 50-year period, was bound together by his passion for language, his belief in the ritualistic nature of theatre and his breadth of understanding. | Brian Friel, who has died aged 86, was the finest Irish dramatist of his generation. His work covered a wide variety of themes: exile and emigration, the political Troubles of Northern Ireland, the subjective nature of memory. But Friel’s diverse output, spanning a 50-year period, was bound together by his passion for language, his belief in the ritualistic nature of theatre and his breadth of understanding. |
| Related: Brian Friel, Irish playwright who wrote Dancing at Lughnasa, dies aged 86 | Related: Brian Friel, Irish playwright who wrote Dancing at Lughnasa, dies aged 86 |
| Not surprisingly Chekhov, whose work he often translated, was the biggest influence on him as a dramatist. Having started as an accomplished short-story writer, Friel was alerted to the possibilities of theatre by spending two months in 1963 watching the great English director Tyrone Guthrie at work in Minneapolis. That led directly to one of his most innovative plays, Philadelphia, Here I Come! (1964), in which he gives voice to the alter ego of a young man about to leave small-town Ireland for the joys of America: a stock situation is given vivid new life by showing the public caution and private fantasies of the split-level hero. | |
| But, although Friel was always fascinated by the Irish dream of escape, he also responded directly to the Northern political crisis. People tend to forget now that in 1973 he wrote The Freedom of the City which was an expression of outrage at the whitewash of the Widgery tribunal, which effectively exculpated the British paratroopers who killed 13 unarmed civilians in a march in Derry that became known as Bloody Sunday. | But, although Friel was always fascinated by the Irish dream of escape, he also responded directly to the Northern political crisis. People tend to forget now that in 1973 he wrote The Freedom of the City which was an expression of outrage at the whitewash of the Widgery tribunal, which effectively exculpated the British paratroopers who killed 13 unarmed civilians in a march in Derry that became known as Bloody Sunday. |
| Related: Brian Friel obituary | Related: Brian Friel obituary |
| Friel pursued his preoccupation with public issues in Volunteers (1975) in which a group of political prisoners agree to work on the erection of a corporate monstrosity on a valuable archaeological site. But, never a writer to be pigeonholed, he changed direction in 1979 with Faith Healer which many consider to be his greatest play. Comprising four monologues for three characters, it offers different angles on the story of an itinerant healer who returns to his native Ireland to restore his failing powers. This was as clear a statement as the interview-shy Friel ever made about the dilemma of the writer, always dependent on the accident of inspiration and never sure whether an artistic gift was a curse or a blessing. | Friel pursued his preoccupation with public issues in Volunteers (1975) in which a group of political prisoners agree to work on the erection of a corporate monstrosity on a valuable archaeological site. But, never a writer to be pigeonholed, he changed direction in 1979 with Faith Healer which many consider to be his greatest play. Comprising four monologues for three characters, it offers different angles on the story of an itinerant healer who returns to his native Ireland to restore his failing powers. This was as clear a statement as the interview-shy Friel ever made about the dilemma of the writer, always dependent on the accident of inspiration and never sure whether an artistic gift was a curse or a blessing. |
| In 1980 Friel joined forces with Stephen Rea to found Field Day with the intention to tour plays that responded to Northern Irish violence and eventually to publish anthologies of Irish writing. This led to a number of very fine Friel plays including Translations (1980), which explored the use of language as an instrument of colonial power, and Making History (1988) which dealt with a Gaelic revolt against British power in the 16th century and showed how the interpretation of history is conditioned by the needs of the present. | In 1980 Friel joined forces with Stephen Rea to found Field Day with the intention to tour plays that responded to Northern Irish violence and eventually to publish anthologies of Irish writing. This led to a number of very fine Friel plays including Translations (1980), which explored the use of language as an instrument of colonial power, and Making History (1988) which dealt with a Gaelic revolt against British power in the 16th century and showed how the interpretation of history is conditioned by the needs of the present. |
| Related: Dancing at Lughnasa: the evolution of a masterpiece, step by step | Related: Dancing at Lughnasa: the evolution of a masterpiece, step by step |
| Moving away from Field Day, Friel proceeded to write a number of more personal plays about myth and memory. The most internationally popular was Dancing at Lughnasa (1990), based on Friel’s own recollection of five Irish sisters who at one point unforgettably overcome the repressions of their rural existence to break out into an ecstatic pagan dance. | Moving away from Field Day, Friel proceeded to write a number of more personal plays about myth and memory. The most internationally popular was Dancing at Lughnasa (1990), based on Friel’s own recollection of five Irish sisters who at one point unforgettably overcome the repressions of their rural existence to break out into an ecstatic pagan dance. |
| In Molly Sweeney (1994) Friel, who was suffering from eyesight problems, wrote a haunting play that records its heroine’s terrified journey from blindness to partial sight. A bit dismissive of the play when it first appeared, I still treasure a postcard from Friel expressing his surprised delight that I had undergone a change of heart on seeing it revived in 2013. | In Molly Sweeney (1994) Friel, who was suffering from eyesight problems, wrote a haunting play that records its heroine’s terrified journey from blindness to partial sight. A bit dismissive of the play when it first appeared, I still treasure a postcard from Friel expressing his surprised delight that I had undergone a change of heart on seeing it revived in 2013. |
| On top of his original work, Friel did a beautiful adaptation of Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons, translated most of Chekhov’s major plays and dramatised many of his short stories. He was always understandably in thrall to the Russian master. But his great achievement was that, in a vast variety of plays, he explored the condition of Ireland and embodied the idea of theatre as a vital secular ritual. | On top of his original work, Friel did a beautiful adaptation of Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons, translated most of Chekhov’s major plays and dramatised many of his short stories. He was always understandably in thrall to the Russian master. But his great achievement was that, in a vast variety of plays, he explored the condition of Ireland and embodied the idea of theatre as a vital secular ritual. |