We went to see Translations last
week. This is a play by Irish playwright Brian Friel that I just love. If it is
on the radio or there is a production nearby, I will make whatever effort it
takes to attend. It was on at Northern Stage here in a beautiful, faithful
production in front of a packed house. Four hundred and fifty people on a Wednesday
night in Newcastle to see a play set in 19thC rural Ireland.
It is show not tell again [see
Late Spring post below] and is about a platoon of English soldiers who have
been sent into the countryside to re-write the Gaelic roadsigns and place-names
into English. A young lieutenant falls in love with a local girl and there are
consequences. It is about cultural imperialism of course. I was amused to see
that it recently played to packed houses in Minsk. Wonder what how a play about
cultural imperialism went down in Belarus?
Liam Neeson starred in the very
first production in Derry back in 1980. What a firecracker he must have seemed then.
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