1920s Moscow, a small run-down café. Uncle Vanya's niece, Sonya Serebriakova, now in her forties, is the only customer. Until the arrival of Andrey Prozorov, the put-upon brother from Three Sisters.
Afterplay revisits the lives of two characters from Anton Chekhov's plays. It was first produced, with The Bear (also after Chekhov), at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, in March 2002.
Elena Popova, a young and attractive widow, has immersed herself in the role of mourning for her once philandering late husband. Luka, her frail and ancient man-servant, tries in vain to snap her out of it. Then Smirnov barges in.
The Bear (after Chekhov) was first produced, with Afterplay, at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, in March 2002.
It is 1936 and harvest time in County Donegal. In a house just outside the village of Ballybeg live the five Mundy sisters, barely making ends meet, their ages ranging from twenty-six up to forty. The two male members of the household are brother Jack, a missionary priest, repatriated from Africa by his superiors after 25 years, and the seven-year-old child of the youngest sister. In depicting two days in the life of this menage, Brian Friel evokes not simply the interior landscape of a group of human beings trapped in their domestic situation, but the wider landscape, interior and exterior, Christian and pagan, of which they are a part.
Set in rural Russia of the mid-nineteenth century. A brilliant, anarchic young medical student, Bazarov, arrives at the provincial family villa of his best friend, Arkady, for the summer vacation. He wants to despise the family for their imperturbable complacency, and bourgeois effeteness. But he is tormented by conflicting emotions, and takes desperate action, with tragic consequences.
Fathers and Sons opened at the Lyttelton Theatre, South Bank, London, in July 1987.
The year is 1878. The widowed Christopher Gore, his son David and their housekeeper Margaret, the woman with whom they are both in love, live at The Lodge in Ballybeg. But in this era of unrest at the dawn of Home Rule, their seemingly serene life is threatened by the arrival of Christopher’s English cousin, who unwittingly ignites deep animosity among the villagers of Ballybeg.
The Home Place premiered at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, in February 2005.
The central character of this play is Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, who led an Irish and Spanish alliance against the armies of Elizabeth I in an attempt to drive the English out of Ireland. The action takes place before and after the Battle of Kinsale, at which the alliance was defeated: with O’Neill at home in Dungannon, as a fugitive in the mountains, and finally exiled in Rome. In his handling of this momentous episode Brian Friel has avoided the conventions of ‘historical drama’ to produce a play about history, the continuing process.
This version of Molière's Le Misanthrope was first produced by the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic, London, in February 1973.
Molly Sweeney, by the great Irish playwright Brian Friel, tells the story of married couple Molly and Frank, who live in a remote Irish village. Molly has been blind since birth, but now a surgeon – Mr. Rice – believes he may be able to restore her sight. In a series of interwoven monologues, Molly Sweeney takes us into the minds of three people with very different expectations of what will happen when Molly regains her vision.
An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Jenny Bacon, Robert Breuler and Rick Snyder.
Featuring: Frances Fisher, Jeanie Hackett, Shannon Holt, Amy Pietz, Brittany Snow, Jocelyn Towne. Additional voices by Josh Clark.
This enthralling play considers the relationship between the private life and public work of the composer Leoš Janácek, the passion he felt for a married woman nearly forty years his junior, and his final surge of creative energy.
Performances premiered at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, in 2003.
'Three married couples arrive at Ballybeg pier to celebrate the birthday of Terry by visiting an island he has acquired, Oilean Draíochta, the enchanted island… has the echoes of Hy-Breasil, the isle of the blest where, like Avalon, mortals can heal themselves of their hurt. It is a play of atmosphere and moods, and in many ways it is the most profoundly multi-layers, sad, beautiful and musical of all Mr Friel's creations.' Irish Independent
Wonderful Tennessee was first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in June 1993.
Brian Friel was born in County Tyrone in 1929. He died in County Donegal on 2 October 2015.
