Translations

Translations is a drama of the Northern Irish author Brian Friel. It consists of three acts. It is a stage play of the Field Day Theatre Company, whose world premiere at the Guildhall in Derry, Northern Ireland, took place and dated on 23 September 1980.

From generic theoretical perspective the work can be attributed to the historical drama, in which case only the context of the story is real history, not the figures.

Action

The play is set in Baile Beag in British-occupied Ireland in 1833 and is superficially from the Rekartographierung of the country and the renaming ( translation ) of the Irish local, corridor and waterway names in English names by the so-called Ordnance Survey, an executive agency of the UK crown. The primary action area is a poorly equipped rural school where the pupils are taught in Irish culture and classical philology. Responsible for the implementation of renaming in the region, the figure Captain Lancey, an ideal-typical British colonist. The actual work have to deal with the acting under Lieutenant Yolland and the Irishman Owen, the son of the rector of the rural school. In the course of the story, individual characters develop quite strong and the spheres " Irish" and " British" approach at each other. Yolland and Owen recognize the absurdity of their mission and become friends. The highlight is, finally, a short love scene with Yolland and the very modernist, pro- English set Irin Maire, who fall in love despite communication problems with each other. Then Yolland disappears without a trace and fail the mutual overtures.

Sources and Literature

• Brian Friel: Translations. Selected Plays. Faber, London 1984.
• Glenn Hutchinson: The Drama of Naming Ireland: Brian Friel 's Translations 'and, The Communication Cord '. In: Names: A Journal of Onomastics. 49 No. 2, 2001 ISSN 00,277,738, pp. 121-134.

• Drama
• Literature ( Irish)