Over the past two decades, Brian Friel has become one of Ireland's best-known playwrights. Following the example of William Butler Yeats, John Millington Synge, Sean O'Casey, and others who were part ...
Read more
Translations debuted in the Fall of 1980 in a Field Day Theatre production at the Guildhall in Derry (Londonderry), Northern Ireland. The following April, it opened off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theat...
Read more
In the following review of the New York premiere of Translations, Barnes gives the play a favorable reception, claiming that it "gleams with that old bardic poetry translated … into styl...
Read more
In the review below, Rich states that Translations "has something profound to say about how words can determine the fates of ordinary people, nations and even centuries of history," but ...
Read more
In his review of Translations, Kroll states that beneath the surface of "this sweet and subtle play" lies a "powerful study of the roots of imperialism, the take-over not just of ...
Read more
In the excerpt below, Kearney discusses Friel's exploration of the role of language in the formation of a community in Translations.
With Translations Friel's exploration of language ...
Read more
In the following essay, Zach evaluates the universal significance of Translations.
In 1970, in a discussion with other Irish authors about the future of Irish drama, we find Brian Friel both critic...
Read more
In the following essay, Kearney speculates on the political and social dimensions of language as text and subject matter in Friel's Translations and The Communication Cord.
Brian Friel...
Read more
Since its first performance in 1980, "Translations" has enthralled, entertained, informed and disturbed audiences around the world. Frequently performed in Ireland, England and the USA, it has been w...
Read more
One of the most important scenes to find out how different characters see the Irish is act2 sn1. Friel's introduction to this scene already shows important signs as to how he presents the Irish. `Yoll...
Read more
In the foreground of the play, `Translations', the audience is presented with the British Ordnance Survey of Ireland, a process of mapping, renaming and anglicising.
The British army needed more acc...
Read more
We are introduced to the Royal Engineers through Owen at the end of the first act. They have come to conduct an Ordnance Survey of Ireland. One of these soldiers is Lieutenant George Yolland.
Friel's...
Read more
Up to act one, Friel presents us with a tight knit and well-bonded community of people. People bonded by their nationality, culture and language. This of course is extremely ironic (Friel uses irony...
Read more
In Translations Friel creates a play which is enriched by the use of classical language and themes, mush of which come from myth and legend. The process by which this interacts with the present day r...
Read more
Translations tells the story of an Irish community during the time when Ireland was being occupied and mapped by the English in the late summer of 1833 but it contains many different themes. One of th...
Read more
Though the play is written in English the audience are to believe that the common people of Baile Beag speak only Gaelic and the soldiers speak only English. This strengthens the barrier between the ...
Read more
Owen enters the play a little over half way though act one and changes the atmosphere and the course of the play immediately. His entrance brings joy and excitement to the community as their `prodiga...
Read more
Teaching Translations
All teaching products sold separately.
Translations Lesson Plans contain 134 pages of teaching material, including:
Google Inc. planned to introduce a feature Wednesday that automatically translates Internet search requests and results in 12 languages, underscoring the rapidly growing company's ambitions outside...
Read more
An Arabic language expert testified Monday that the FBI inaccurately translated some telephone intercepts of three suspected terrorism supporters, and said words that prosecutors say were code for ...
Read more
The official Chinese translation of the final Harry Potter book won't be out for nearly three months, but eager fans have posted their own translations online.China's authorized publisher of "Harry...
Read more
Israeli Harry Potter fans elbowed their way in for autographs and photos _ not with the author of the best-selling books, but with the Hebrew translator.More than 100 devotees of British writer J.K...
Read more
New York will require all hospitals to provide skilled translators amid fears that family members can be unreliable translators for non-English speaking patients.
The reliance on friends a...
Read more
Translator Listiani Srisanti brought J.K. Rowling's magical tales about Harry Potter to life for millions of Indonesians _ even after doctors diagnosed her with cancer and told her she had only a f...
Read more
An Iraqi translator working for CBS News was found dead five days after he was abducted from his Baghdad home, the U.S. network announced Monday.Anwar Abbas Lafta, who had worked for CBS for about ...
Read more
A former Arabic translator for the Army in Iraq pleaded guilty Wednesday to illegally possessing secret documents detailing the 82nd Airborne Division's mission against insurgents.Among the documen...
Read more
The lead FBI investigator in the terrorism support case against Jose Padilla and others conceded Friday that a translator said a relief effort could have been the subject of an intercepted phone ca...
Read more