MOLLY SWEENEY

Brian Friel

James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, John Sing, Sean O’Casey, Samuel Beckett… To this list of famous Irishmen who became part of world literature could be added the name of Brian Friel, one of the leading playwrights in the English-speaking world today. It is no accident that a festival was organized in Dublin in 1999 to celebrate his 70th birthday. This playwright is known in many Western countries. His plays are staged in Great Britain, Germany, Italy, France and the United States. Multiple editions of his plays can easily be found on the shelves of Western bookstores. Russia is just getting to know Brian Friel.

Almost all of Brian Friel’s plays are set in the imaginary Ballybeg, which translated from the Gaelic means “little town.” To a certain extent the prototype was Glentis in the northwest county of Donegal, where his parents were from and where he spent his childhood years. Friel studied at the famous St. Patrick’s School, then at Belfast Teacher’s College. He spent ten years teaching in a suburb of Derry. His first success came with the play Philadelphia, Here I Come! staged in 1965. Since then he has written more than twenty plays, among which the best known are The Loves of Cass McGuire, The Lovers, Freedom of the City, Volunteers, Living Quarters, Aristocrats, Translations, The Train of Thought, Faith Healer, and Dancing at Lughnasa. In addition, he has produced several collections of stories, radio plays and screenplays.

No matter what the playwright writes about, he is always preoccupied with Ireland, its fate, its paths and crossroads, the native Irish character. But each play is a venture into the metaphysics of human existence. Man and the world. In Ireland and everywhere. Apparently, this explains Brian Friel’s interest in Russian literature. His translations of Three Sisters, and Uncle Vanya, A Month in the Country and Fathers and Sons, based on Ivan Turgenev’s novel are all staged in Irish theaters.

Molly Sweeney premiered in Dublin at the Gate Theatre in 1994, then showed successfully on stages of London, Paris, Milan, and New York. In 1995 the play received five prestigious theater awards. Our performance is the first staging of one of Friel’s plays in Russia.

Love and cynicism, idealism mixed with lack of faith, the ability to view and the inability to see, and the eternal road to hell paved with good intentions. Brian Friel’s play is full of life and exudes life, just as old tragedies are steeped in blood.

Lev Dodin

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant --      
Success in Circuit lies                                   
Too bright for our infirm Delight                                  
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind                          
The Truth must dazzle gradually                       
Or every man be blind --                                                     

Emily Dickinson