Brian Friel was an Irish writer known primarily for his work as a playwright; he was also an accomplished short-story writer. He is a celebrated figure known by many as the "Irish Chekhov" because of his focus on family issues and relationships. Friel is also celebrated for his distinctly Irish voice and perspective, and his attention to family and more intimate social dynamics also reflected his unique perspective on the broader Irish political landscape. In Friel's obituary in The Guardian, Richard Pine writes, "Living at various times on either side of the Irish border, he was preoccupied with aspects of dualism: divided loyalties, tensions between fathers and sons, the two languages and the island’s two political states."
Friel was born to a schoolteacher and a postmistress and raised in Knockmoyle and Derry. At the beginning of his career, he trained to become a teacher, and worked teaching mathematics in Derry. In 1960, he left this career to pursue writing full time. His plays include Philadelphia, Here I Come!, Crystal and Fox, The Gentle Island, Living Quarters, Faith Healer, Aristocrats, Translations, The Communication Cord, Dancing at Lughnasa, Wonderful Tennessee, Molly Sweeney, Afterplay, and The Home Place. For Dancing at Lughnasa, he won the Laurence Olivier award as well as the Tony Award for Best Play.
Throughout his career, Friel was an Irish nationalist, and was once quoted as saying, “I do think that the problem will always be exacerbated as long as England is in the country. But if England were to go tomorrow morning, that wouldn’t solve it. We still have got to find a modus vivendi for ourselves within the country.”
Most people are familiar with the film version of Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa; fewer are familiar with the play, and some did not realize that the big screen classic was ever a play at all. Yet this is probably the most famous of Friel's...
Philadelphia, Here I Come! is Brian Friel's breakthrough success. He wrote it in 1964 after having written a few other plays, including The Enemy Within and The Blind Mice. Philadelphia's heart-wrenching and intimate portrayal of an Irishman's...
Translations is a play written by Brian Friel in 1980. It is a play in three acts that looks at language, and the history of cultural imperialism in Ireland. It was first performed at the Guildhall in Derry, Northern Ireland in 1980, a decision...
