About the Play:

Translations was one of Royal National Theatre of Britain's top 100 plays of the 20th century.

Translations has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues, Male Monologues, Female/Male Scenes, and Male/Male Scenes.

Translations is a full-length drama by Brian Friel. In 19th-century rural Ireland, a young British officer leads an expedition to survey the landscape and to translate the Gaelic place names of age-old Irish landmarks to the King's English. His struggle to communicate with the Gaelic-speaking villagers reveals a culture far richer, and a people far more dedicated to defending their identity, than he expected. Translations is a hauntingly lyrical play about nothing less than language as the soul of a nation.

Translations is set in 1833 in Ireland. It tells of the British army's campaign to replace the native Gaelic place names with English, an attempt to end centuries of fighting by setting up a political union based on a common language. Farm girl Máire finds herself torn between the affections of the local school teacher and the love of a British soldier, between her native tongue and a new language, between the comfort of the world she knows and the excitement of foreign possibilities. The resulting clash of cultures strikes at the heart of the community as they struggle to interpret a new language, and each other. What gets lost in translation? A powerful classic from one of Ireland's most revered dramatists, Translations is a celebration of the power of language – whether it be to kindle romance, incite violence, or build a bridge to a common understanding.

Translations premiered in 1980 at the Guildhall in Derry, Northern Ireland. The first night, which included Liam Neeson in the cast, proved a great success and what may be Brian Friel's greatest play went on to triumph at the Dublin Theatre Festival, toured a number of venues in Ireland, North and South, and transferred to London. Since then, Translations has been widely hailed as a masterpiece, a watershed in Irish theatre, has enjoyed countless revivals, has toured extensively, and has been translated into several languages.

Cast: 3 female, 7 male

What people say:

"Translations is a modern classic. It engages the intellect as well as the heart, and achieves a profound political and philosophical resonance through the detailed examination of individual lives, of particular people in particular place and time." — Daily Telegraph

"This is Brian Friel's finest play, his most deeply thought and felt, the most deeply involved with Ireland but also the most universal: haunting and hard, lyrical and erudite, bitter and forgiving, both praise and lament." — Sunday Times

"Gleams with that old bardic poetry." — New York Post

"A funny and bitter portrait of Irish peasants caught in the midst of a quiet social upheaval." — The New York Times

About the Playwright:

Brian Friel (1929-2015) was an Irish dramatist, theatre director and author. One of Ireland's greatest playwrights, he was a leading voice on stages on both sides of the Atlantic. He received his college education in Derry, Maynooth and Belfast and taught at various schools in and around Derry from 1950 to 1960. Often described as the "Irish Chekhov," he has penned more than 30 plays in a career spanning six decades.