Translations (Faber Drama)

by Brian Friel

Book Overview

The action takes place in late August 1833 at a hedge-school in the townland of Baile Beag, an Irish-speaking community in County Donegal. In a nearby field camps a recently arrived detachment of the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0571117422
• Release Date: March 1995
• Publisher: FSG Adult
• Length: 114 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.7" x 0.3" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

the loss of languages

an eloquent, moving play about the love of one's native language (Irish) and the plight of lost languages (Latin, ancient Greek, and so on). Of course, it was written after the largely successful revival of the Irish language. There's your delayed "happy ending." (It's not the same, though, not by a long shot.) the nice thing about friel's play is that he conveys the machine of colonialism with the appropriate complexity--it isn't "bad Englishman, good Irishman," but something much more complex. sometimes people like Owen, unwittingly or not, sell out their own. Sometimes others, for example the English soldier here, are part of the colonial apparatus, but not consciously or intentionally--and such people may end up being the colonized culture's greatest champions. I liked it better than Dancing at Lughnasa. It reads well--and a lot of plays don't.

Beauty Translates Itself

I felt moved to add a review of Translations after reading several of the reviews other readers have left. Brian Friel has a feel for language that is nothing short of miraculous. This play in particular is a delicate and wonderful portrait of the universality of human experience. If you care enough to read these reviews you owe it to yourself to read this play. I am a long time admirer of Mr. Friel and I saw a remarkable production of this play in London several years ago. There are times - rare times - when a person leaves a theater and doesn't feel the ground under his feet because of the transport of the experience. That was one such performance, and this is that fine a play.

Seeing is Believing

I had the privilege of performing in this play, and I must say that it is one of the most unspeakably beautiful pieces of theatre I have ever read. It challenges the reader/actor with its language, seduces him/her with its emotional power, and teaches an amazing lesson of love and change. I think it must be seen to be appreciated, but every time I read it I am staggered by its intelligence and poetry. (I did see a terrible production of it on Broadway, but a true interpretation of the play reveals it to be the masterpiece it is.)

That Good, I Directed the Play

Over the past few nights I have directed this play at my college. I am studying the book as part of my English 'A' Level course, and you'd think I'd get bored of it, but no, I love this book. Being Irish, I feel that it captures the very essence of Irish culture, and the hatred portrayed by Manus toward the English soldiers, is caught so well by Friel. Definitive and Encapsulating, I love this story. Tragedy or no, it's one of the best books I have read about the fall of one's culture through Language. It challenges the typical stereotype of the Irish, and shows how pompus the English could be! BUY IT!

A great book with many hidden meanings!

I have studied this book as an A-level text and like previously reviewed found it very boring to begin with, however once you have started to delve deeper into the content of the book you realise that it has many morals and many themes, mainly about language. The book talks of a universal language and the death of languages, having made the Irish language a parallel with the Greek language. The book has romance and loss and deals with many of the problems that language can bring about. It is very cleverly written even though it is written in english it expresses itself as though written in English and Gaelic, this aids the readers understanding of the troubles that they are having in communicating. It is a very interesting book and would appeal to most readers!, a must in my opinion to people interested in language and history!.