HOW IRELAND loves her great writers! In the presence of Brian Friel and his wife Anne, the Irish College last night launched a four-day “Feast of Friel” to honour the playwright in this year of his 80th birthday.
Dr Joe Mulholland, former head of television at RTÉ and director of the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, delivered the opening address.
Then the legendary French actor Laurent Terzieff, who has made Friel known to French theatre audiences, performed extracts from two of Friel's plays, Faith Healerand Molly Sweeney.
Ambassador Anne Anderson introduced new translations of seven of Friel’s plays, which are published by Éditions Avant Scène. The translator, Alain Delahaye, worked closely with Friel to preserve the subtleties of the text.
Ms Anderson recognised how difficult it was, saying, " Translationsis a play all about the complexities of the clash between the Irish and English languages. How to even begin to address that in French?"
Friel “turns his gaze on Ireland, sometimes with a tenderness that never descends into sentimentality, sometimes with a severity that – even if it does not forgive – is nevertheless tempered by an understanding of how and why our society came to be flawed”, she said.
Thomas Kilroy, playwright, professor emeritus of English at University College Galway and co-founder of the Field Day group of actors and writers from Derry, then delivered an homage to Friel.
Between today and Sunday, Martin Mansergh TD and Fintan O'Toole of The Irish Timeswill deliver lectures on Friel's oeuvre, and the Ouroboros theatre company will perform excerpts from six of his plays.