SOURCE: "Brecht and Friel: Some Irish Parallels," in Modern Drama, Vol. XXXI, No. 3, September 1988, pp. 365-70.

In the following essay, Binnie considers Friel's plays and his involvement with Field Day Theatre Company, drawing parallels to the work of Bertolt Brecht.

In the ancient and troubled frontier city of Derry, Brian Friel established the Field Day Theatre Company in 1980. He was joined in this bold endeavour by a number of other artists, including the actor Stephen Rea and the poet Seamus Heaney. All of the Board of Directors are Northerners. Their motives, in founding the new company, were to reappraise the political and cultural situation in Northern Ireland as it affects the whole of Ireland. They aim to examine and analyze the established opinions, slogans, myths and war-cries which have gone to the creation of the present troubles in Ireland. Like Brecht's Galileo in his final exchange with Andrea...