Translations Home

Synopsis

First play written by Brian Friel for The Field Day Theater Company in 1981, Translations stages the Irish-speaking community of the imaginary village of Baile Beag, County Donegal. The scene takes place in a hedge-school, some day in August 1833, where some people from the village attend evening classes. They witness the first Ordnance Survey of the entire country ever conducted by the British Crown in which the Gaelic names of Irish places are changed for anglicized names. The hedge-school master’s son comes back after a long time away from his Irish motherland with the mission to help the British soldiers accomplish their task. However, the Irish soon understand that there is more to this than a simple Ordnance Survey: it’s an “eviction of sorts” (Friel 52). Brian Friel offers a depiction of the responses of this Irish-speaking community in the face of the remapping and renaming of their land.

Irish famine cottage pictured with outbuilding in a grassy yard; picture by Dawn Duncan

Act I: The first act marks the arrival of the British soldiers in Baile Beag and the announcement to the hedge-school community of the beginning of the first Ordnance Survey of Ireland.

Act II: In the first part of the second act, Owen and Yolland work together on the renaming of Irish places in the Name Book. The second part stages a romantic scene between Yolland and Maire.

Act III: The final act stages the beginning of violent military operations in Baile Beag after Yolland's disappearance.

Written by: Fanny Robuchon