Friel's Derry
When looking at Brian Friel’s The Freedom of the City, it is important to go beyond the play's surface meaning to fully understand what Friel may have hoped to accomplish with the play. The play depicts three innocent protagonists who are wrongfully murdered by British soldiers. The events in the play are eerily similar to those of The Battle of the Bogside, which took place in August of 1969, as well as Bloody Sunday, which took place in Derry on January 30th, 1972. While there are many similarities between The Freedom of the City and Bloody Sunday, the play is not completely historically accurate, which suggests that there is more to the play than historical events. Elizabeth Hale Winkler states that, “Friel is not concerned with an historically accurate portrayal of an actual event... But rather with an imaginative perception of the human and social factors behind all the developments of the years 1968 to 1972” (16). To fully comprehend everything that the play has to offer, it is important to look at the various intentions Friel may have had with the play. Specifically, Friel is concerned with the injustice of poverty and of British soldiers in Ireland.
When discussing his play, Friel talks about how he had not planned to write the play with a focus on Bloody Sunday. In fact, he began writing the play about 10 months prior to the event. In an interview, Friel states, “It’s not about Bloody Sunday...[The Freedom of the City] is a play which is about poverty” (qtd. in Jent 576). While it may not have been his original intention to write about Bloody Sunday, its influence on the play shows the degree to which that event angered Friel. While he may have intended the play to be about poverty, the events of Bloody Sunday greatly influenced him and helped create a play that depicts the horrors of what was happening in Ireland during the civil rights movement under excessive British control. A reader of the play cannot deny the similarities between Bloody Sunday and the events that take place in the play.
Written by:
Nicole Sand
"Derry Walls" Photo Credit: Dawn Duncan
Similarities to The Battle of the Bogside and Bloody Sunday
One of the important similarities between The Battle of the Bogside and Bloody Sunday and the play is quite simply the protest itself. In the play a civil rights protest that had been banned by the authorities was taking place in Derry, Northern Ireland. While the protest was peaceful, that did not stop the British soldiers from using force to get the protesters out of the street. In both The Battle of the Bogside and Bloody Sunday, similar situations took place. Both protests were banned, and both had the Guildhall as their end destination. In addition, the official British Widgery report on Bloody Sunday exonerated the army, much like what happens in the play (Winkler 15-16). Similarities between the play and historical events reveal the influence of contemporary history on Friel’s writing.
In addition to events that take place in the play, the wording of Lily, Michael, and Skinner's death reports is oddly similar to the Widgery Report that came out after Bloody Sunday. Winkler states that Friel is, “on one hand attacking the Widgery Report, which indeed he quotes directly or paraphrases and adapts indirectly both in the summary of conclusions and at various other points throughout the play” (25). This shows the impact that the event had on Friel and was a way for him to speak out about it and its injustice.
One of the most iconic images of the events that took place on Bloody Sunday would be the image of Father Edward Daley waving a bloodstained handkerchief over the body of Jackie Duddy (Russell 46-47). This imagery also appears in the opening scene of The Freedom of the City. The play opens with the bodies of Lily, Michael, and Skinner laying on the stage floor. A photographer is taking pictures of the dead bodies as a priest with a white handkerchief moves from body to body, blessing and praying for them (Friel 9). Because this play was performed in 1973, so shortly after the events of Bloody Sunday, that opening scene would have had an immediate affect upon audiences. The Freedom of the City is a moving play that gives the audience a personal connection to individuals who were in a similar situation as Lily, Michael, and Skinner. The various similarities between the events in the play and what happened on Bloody Sunday show that the protests in Derry were a serious component of the play; however, those events should not overshadow other themes in the play.
"Overview of Bogside" Photo Credit: Dawn Duncan
The Focus on Poverty
While the events of Bloody Sunday were represented in the play, on several occasions Friel insisted that the play was about poverty. One of the reasons Friel has stressed that the play is about poverty may be because the theme of Bloody Sunday is so prominent that readers and the audience may over look the other issues represented in the play. Richard Rankin Russell states, “Friel’s incorporation of similar, even verbatim phrases from the Widgery Report into his play at this point, along with the opening image of the flag-waving priest, suggest the damaging influence on the play by factual reporting -- just what he had feared would be perceived by audiences as the play’s immediacy” (49). The play is more complex than being solely about Bloody Sunday. It calls into question the whole authority system in Northern Ireland at the time and the oppression of the poor. Each of the characters represents and brings to life the struggles of the lower class in Ireland at the time. The fact that Lily’s family of thirteen shares one sink and one bath with eight other families is an example of the play’s concern with the struggles of the lower class.
One of the most overlooked characters in the play, Dodds, is perhaps the one character that stresses the theme of poverty and Friel’s own opinions within the play the most (Jent 572). Removing Dodds from the play would lessen the theme of poverty. If Dodds is overlooked or considered an unimportant role, then the play seems to focus on Bloody Sunday and the socio-political conditions of the time (Jent 572). Friel wants the audience and readers to also fully understand this theme of poverty through the role of Dodds. William Jent states, “Dodds is acting as Friel’s proxy here, that his character enacts, not within the play but within the theater, the cultural program of which the play is itself an expression” (Jent 575). Jent then adds that a reading of the play that neglects Dodds, also neglects to show what the play is really about (Jent 575). Russell agrees with this sentiment, stating, “Dodds’s discourse on poverty also strengthens Friel’s claim that the play is mainly about poverty, not politics” (Russell 49). One of the ways in which Friel uses Dodds as a way to disconnect from Bloody Sunday is through the fact that he is American. Because Dodds is neither Irish or British, he is also not colonized or a colonizer in this situation (Jent 577). Dodds is also placed to the very side of the stage which Jent suggests is a way for Dodds to have a rapport directly with the audience (Jent 576). Friel also creates a distance between Dodds and what is happening in the play through the fact that Dodds does not react to anything going on in the play, including the screams of the crowd (Winkler 23).
In addition to Dodds, Russell believes that Friel emphasizes the theme of poverty through the main characters, stating, “Friel highlights the poverty of the Bogside in Derry through intensely dramatizing three human beings who ironically discuss their lives of abject poverty surrounded by the opulence of the Guildhall” (54). This goes to show that colonizing does not necessarily mean that the place being colonized will be better off or that rates of poverty will decrease. The Troubles in Ireland and the rioting of that time reveals that Britain’s enforced colonizing proved more detrimental than helpful.
While the play is tragic, it also creates a glimmer of hope for the future of the civil rights movement. Russell writes, “A rigid reading neglects the hopeful promise of freedom in the play and ignores art’s role in briefly suggesting such a freedom” (58). The Freedom of the City is a complex play set in a troubled Northern Ireland and expresses the injustice and problems caused by British colonization as well as class struggle and poverty. It is clear that it is important to view the play with an open mind in order to not overlook either of its central themes.
Works Cited:
Friel, Brian. The Freedom of the City: A Play in Two Acts. London: Samuel French, 1974. Print.
Jent, William. "Supranational Civics: Poverty and the Politics of Representation in Brian Friel's The Freedom of the City." Modern Drama 37.4 (1994): 568-87. Print.
Russell, Richard R. "The Liberating Fictional Truth of Community in Brian Friel's The Freedom of the City." South Atlantic Review 71.1 (2006): 42-73. Print.
Winkler, Elizabeth H. "Brian Friel's The Freedom of the City: Historical Actuality and Dramatic Imagination." The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies 7.1 (1981): 12-31. Print.