TRANSLATING OUR CULTURAL IDENTITY
IT’S a play that had resonance when it was first performed in Derry in 1980 but it seems these days Brian Friel’s Translations is just as important as ever. This is one of the reasons The Abbey Theatre’s new Artistic Director Caitriona McLaughlin has chosen it as a touring production, playing in The Lyric Theatre Belfast before a summer run at the Abbey and a tour round the country.
It’s also a play that has been produced so many times before all over the world, by lauded companies and amateur groups but McLaughlin doesn’t think of theatre pieces as repeats of something that’s gone before.
‘I suppose I don’t think of theatre in the way,’ she says. ‘Plays make us think and in the context of Brexit and the anniversary of partition, Translations makes us think about the relationship of neighbours.”
That is, Ireland and England as Friel examines the colonial tensions between the two countries. He does this via a plot about an English mapmaker coming to town to register the historic Irish place names in English. We later agree that with the current border discussions, booking a busload of politicians in to the show might be a good idea.
McLaughlin adds: ‘Questions of national identity are in the zeitgeist. There’s an awful lot for the 2022 audience in this play.’ She’s not wrong. The 1880s plot about changing Irish placenames into English and needing to reclaim Irish identity still has resonance when you see ‘London’ painted over on the Derry road signs beside the main road up from Belfast.’
Directing a play often begins with a new idea. McLaughlin reveals that her starting point was Friel’s portrayal of those who are ignored.
‘I wanted to emphasise the people with no voice,’ she says. ‘The internalisation of Sarah and Jimmy Jack is interesting as they’re the characters who are ignored. That was my way in.”
But she adds that she has only tweaked the play ‘very lightly’ as Brian Friel has done a great job. In fact. Caitriona McLaughlin says she rates him with Shakespeare.
‘It’s the best crafted play and yes, Friel is up there with Shakespeare, who’s a very different kind of writer. I think the love scene (between George Yolland, the English mapmaker, and local girl Maire) is actually better than Romeo and Juliet. You’ll fall in love with both of them.’
As the director notes, the best plays give the audience space to work things out, including our relationship to the world. Translations is a co-production with the Lyric Theatre Belfast whose Artistic Director, Jimmy Fay, admits to wanting the play to appear in the house from when he took the job.
‘Brian Friel created unforgettable and vivid characters,’ Fay says. ‘He had a long and warm relationship with the Lyric Theatre. We’re delighted to continue this journey with our partners, the Abbey Theatre.’
Returning to Caitriona McLaughlin, I suggest as Netflix and TV generally have been having a moment, providing brilliant drama to the living room, why should we engage with human beings on a stage?
‘Well, I love television — Taboo with Tom Hardy and Derry Girls is fantastic,’ she says, ‘But telly tends to tie things up, theatre asks questions and gives us space.
‘Also sitting and experiencing a moment together is important. Telling stories to each other is in our DNA.’
Brian Friel created a fictional town, Ballybeg which in the Gaelic version Baile Beag means small town. It’s in Donegal, border country, which is where Caitriona McLaughlin was born.
‘I grew up in Carndonagh in Inishowen and Brian Friel’s play makes you think about what you lose if you rewrite history and lived experience.’
McLaughlin saw her first couple of Friel’s in Derry. ‘An amateur group put on Philadelphia, Here I Come, the first professional Brian Friel play I saw was Dancing at Lughnasa at the Rialto, Derry.’
She says that time gives a different perspective. ‘Brian Friel was writing in the ‘80s when the Troubles were at their height and was writing in that mould.’ She adds: ‘Looking at the play now, you have a different perspective. My favourite line is ‘You can learn to decode us. It’s a really contemporary thought.’
Translations runs at Belfast’s Lyric Theatre until May 29, the Abbey in Dublin (June 13 to August 13) and undertaking an Ireland tour of Limerick, Galway and Donegal.