Fed up with the dreary round of life in Ballybeg, with his uncommunicative father and his humiliating job in his father's grocery shop, with his frustrated love for Kathy Doogan who married a richer, more successful young man and with the total absence of prospect and opportunity in his life at home, Gareth O'Donnell has accepted his aunt's invitation to come to Philadelphia. Now, on the eve of his departure, he is not happy to be leaving Ballybeg.
With this play Brian Friel made his reputation and it is now an acknowledged classic of modern drama.
Fed up with the dreary round of life in Ballybeg, with his uncommunicative father and his humiliating job in his father's grocery shop, with his fr...
Plays Two: Dancing at Lughnasa Fathers and Sons Making History Wonderful Tennessee Molly Sweeney
Introduced by Christopher Murray, this second collection of Brian Friel's plays includes some of his most acclaimed work for the stage.
From the troubled family life of five sisters in 1930s Donegal that is the core of Dancing at Lughnasa (now a major motion picture starring Meryl Streep) to the current-day birthday celebration that is the major external event of Wonderful Tennessee, Brian Friel demonstrates his emotional range and...
Plays Two: Dancing at Lughnasa Fathers and Sons Making History Wonderful Tennessee Molly Sweeney...
Brian Friel explores the most Chekhovian of themes in his three new works inspired by the great Russian dramatist: the absurd realm which lies between perpetual hope and a penchant for self-destruction. Whether exploring the loneliness of an unhappy marriage (in The Yalta Game, based on Chekhov's story The Lady with the Lapdog), or imagining the bittersweet meeting of Sonya (Uncle Vanya's niece) and Andrei (the brother of a certain three sisters) in a new work inspired by characters from two Chekhov plays, Friel shows his own masterful range.
Brian Friel explores the most Chekhovian of themes in his three new works inspired by the great Russian dramatist: the absurd realm which lies betw...
Brian Friel was born in County Tyrone in 1929 and worked as a teacher before turning to full-time writing in 1960. His first stage success was in 1964 with Philadelphia, Here I Come, which established his claim as heir to such distinguished predecessors as Yeats, Synge, O'Casey, and Behan. In 1979 he and actor Stephen Rea formed the Field Day Theatre Company, whose first theatrical production was Friel's Translations in 1980. Also included in this selection are The Freedom of the City, set in Londonderry in 1970; Living Quarters, which Desmond MacAvok in the Evening Press called ""one of the...
Brian Friel was born in County Tyrone in 1929 and worked as a teacher before turning to full-time writing in 1960. His first stage success was in 1964...
