Translations

The Abbey Theatre, Dublin Previews until June 28 Opens June 29-Aug 13 7.30pm (Sat 2pm) 13-40 13-38 01-8787222 abbeytheatre.ie

It is officially the summer of Friel. While the performers of the Abbey's new production of Translations prepare for the politics of the name game, the Gate sets its sights on a revival of Molly Sweeney,while Lovers: Winners and Loserscan be found in a tryst at the New Theatre. Okay, it's a monopoly, but as far as summer entertainment goes, this is a quantum leap from the undemanding fodder that usually defines the schedule.

The box office shouldn't worry, though. Friel is that rare dramatist who effortlessly stimulates as he enchants, appealing at once to the heart and mind, and the extraordinary Translationsreminds you of this alchemy every time.

As the British Ordnance Survey of Ireland turns its attentions to Baile Beag in 1833, steadily mapping, renaming and anglicising every location, an entire culture is being eroded and supplanted. Even the sweet smell in the air beside Hugh and Manus’s hedge school is foreboding, the scent of potato blight. First staged by Field Day in 1980, Friel’s play could be described as a historical drama, but only because it artfully refracts the past into the charged arena of the present. Conall Morrison directs this drama of competing national identities, where the urge to violently resist cultural imposition or to forge a way forward through adaptation and compromise are always living issues.

Can’t See That? Catch This

Molly Sweeney, Gate Theatre, Dublin