Brian Patrick Friel (c. 9 January 1929 – 2 October 2015) was an Irish dramatist, short story writer and founder of the Field Day Theatre Company. He had been considered one of the greatest living English-language dramatists. (subscription required). He has been likened to an "Irish

Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

" and described as "the universally accented voice of Ireland". His plays have been compared favourably to those of contemporaries such as

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are '' All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

and

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three ...

. Recognised for early works such as '' Philadelphia, Here I Come!'' and '' Faith Healer'', Friel had 24 plays published in a career of more than a half-century. He was elected to the honorary position of Saoi of Aosdána. His plays were commonly produced on Broadway in New York City throughout this time, as well as in Ireland and the UK. In 1980 Friel co-founded Field Day Theatre Company and his play ''

Translations Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

'' was the company's first production. With Field Day, Friel collaborated with

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish Irish poetry, poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966), his first m ...

, 1995 recipient of the

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

. Heaney and Friel first became friends after Friel sent the young poet a letter following publication of his book ''Death of a Naturalist''. Friel was a member of the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...

, the British

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

and the Irish Academy of Letters. He was appointed to

Seanad Éireann Seanad Éireann ( ; ; "Senate of Ireland") is the senate of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (defined as the house of representatives). It is commonly called the Seanad or ...

in 1987 and served until 1989. In later years, ''

Dancing at Lughnasa ''Dancing at Lughnasa'' is a 1990 play by dramatist Brian Friel set in County Donegal, Ireland in August 1936 in the fictional town of Ballybeg. It is a memory play told from the point of view of the adult Michael Evans, the narrator. He re ...

'' reinvigorated Friel's oeuvre, bringing him

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

s (including Best Play), the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. It was also adapted into a film, starring

Meryl Streep Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress. Known for her versatility and adept accent work, she has been described as "the best actress of her generation". She has received numerous accolades throughout her career ...

, directed by Pat O'Connor, script by Frank McGuinness.

Personal life

Friel was born in 1929 at Knockmoyle, Northern Ireland, before the family moved to nearby Killyclogher, both places close to

Omagh Omagh (; from , meaning 'the virgin plain') is the county town of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated where the rivers River Drumragh, Drumragh and Camowen River, Camowen meet to form the River Strule, Strule. Northern Ireland's c ...

in County Tyrone. His exact birth date and name are ambiguous. His father was Patrick Friel, a primary school teacher and later a councillor on Londonderry Corporation, the local city council in

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

. Friel's mother was Mary (née McLoone), postmistress of Glenties,

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

. The family moved to

when Friel was ten years old. There he attended St Columb's College (the same school attended by

John Hume John Hume (18 January 19373 August 2020) was an Irish nationalist politician in Northern Ireland and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. A founder and leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, Hume served in the Parliament of Northern Irel ...

, Seamus Deane, Phil Coulter, Eamonn McCann and Paul Brady). Friel received his B.A. from

St Patrick's College, Maynooth St Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth (), is a pontifical Catholic university in the town of Maynooth near Dublin, Ireland Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mou ...

(1945–1948), and qualified as a teacher at St. Joseph's Training College, Belfast in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

, 1949–1950. He married Anne Morrison in 1954; they had four daughters and one son. Between 1950 and 1960, he worked as a maths teacher in the Derry primary and intermediate school system, taking leave in 1960 to pursue a career as a writer, living off his savings. In the late 1960s, the Friels moved from Derry to Muff, County Donegal, before settling outside Greencastle, County Donegal. Friel supported

Irish nationalism Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cult ...

and was a member of the Nationalist Party.

Taoiseach The Taoiseach (, ) is the head of government or prime minister of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the President of Ireland upon nomination by Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...

Charles Haughey nominated Friel to serve as a member of

(the Irish Senate) in 1987, where he served until 1989. After a long illness, Friel died on 2 October 2015 in Greencastle and is buried in the cemetery in Glenties, also in Donegal. He was survived by his wife Anne and children Mary, Judy, Sally and David. Another daughter, Patricia ("Paddy"), predeceased him. While leaving the bulk of his estate to his wife, he bequeathed a house or apartment to each of his living children, and shared his literary estate between them and the children of Patricia. His literary executors were his wife and a friend, the former director for literature at the Arts Council of England, Paul McKeone.

Literary career

A common setting for Friel's plays is in or around the fictional town of " Ballybeg" (from the Irish ''Baile Beag'', meaning "Small Town"). There are fourteen such plays: '' Philadelphia, Here I Come!'', '' Crystal and Fox'', '' The Gentle Island'', '' Living Quarters'', '' Faith Healer'', ''

Aristocrats Aristocracy (; ) is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. Across Europe, the aristocracy exercised immense economic, political, and social influence. In Western Christian co ...

'', ''

'', '' The Communication Cord'', ''

'', '' Wonderful Tennessee'', '' Molly Sweeney'', '' Give Me Your Answer Do!'' and '' The Home Place'', while the seminal event of '' Faith Healer'' takes place in the town. These plays present an extended history of this imagined community, with ''Translations'' and ''The Home Place'' set in the nineteenth century, and ''

'' in the 1930s. With the other plays set in "the present" but written throughout the playwright's career from the early 1960s through the late 1990s, the audience is presented with the evolution of rural Irish society, from the isolated and backward town that Gar flees in the 1964 ''Philadelphia, Here I Come!'' to the prosperous and multicultural small city of ''Molly Sweeney'' (1994) and ''Give Me Your Answer Do!'' (1997), where the characters have health clubs, ethnic restaurants, and regular flights to the world's major cities.

1959 – 1975

Friel's first radio plays were produced by Ronald Mason for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Northern Ireland Home Service in 1958: '' A Sort of Freedom'' (16 January 1958) and '' To This Hard House'' (24 April 1958).Dantanus, Ulf, ''Brian Friel: A Study.'' Faber & Faber, 1989.Pine, Richard, ''The Diviner: The Art of Brian Friel.'' University College Dublin Press, 1999. Friel began writing short stories for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' in 1959 and subsequently published two well-received collections: ''The Saucer of Larks'' (1962) and ''The Gold in the Sea'' (1966). These were followed by '' A Doubtful Paradise,'' his first stage play, produced by the Ulster Group Theatre in late August 1960. Friel also wrote 59 articles for ''

The Irish Press ''The Irish Press'' (irish language, Irish: ''Scéala Éireann'') was an Ireland, Irish national daily newspaper published by Irish Press plc between 5 September 1931 and 25 May 1995. History Foundation The paper's first issue was published o ...

,'' a Dublin-based party-political newspaper, from April 1962 to August 1963; this series included short stories, political editorials on life in Northern Ireland and Donegal, his travels to Dublin and New York City, and his childhood memories of Derry, Omagh, Belfast, and Donegal. Early in Friel's career, the Irish journalist Sean Ward even referred to him in an ''Irish Press'' article as one of the Abbey Theatre's "rejects". Friel's play, '' The Enemy Within'' (1962) enjoyed success, despite only being on the Abbey stage for 9 performances. Belfast's Lyric Theatre revived it in September 1963 and the BBC Northern Ireland Home Service and Radio Éireann both aired it in 1963. Although Friel later withdrew '' The Blind Mice'' (1963), it was by far the most successful play of his very early period, playing for 6 weeks at Dublin's Eblana Theatre, revived by the Lyric, and broadcast by Radio Éireann and the BBC Home Service almost ten times by 1967. Friel had a short stint as "observer" at Tyrone Guthrie's theater in early-1960s Minneapolis; he remarked on it as "enabling" in that it gave him "courage and daring to attempt things". Shortly after returning from his time at the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre, Friel wrote '' Philadelphia Here I Come!'' (1964). The play made him instantly famous in Dublin, London, and New York. ''The Loves of Cass McGuire'' (1966), and '' Lovers'' (1967) were both successful in Ireland, with ''Lovers'' also popular in The United States. Despite Friel's successes in playwriting'','' Friel in the period saw himself as primarily a short story writer, in a 1965 interview stating, "I don't concentrate on the theatre at all. I live on short stories." Friel then turned his attention to contemporary Irish political issues, writing ''The Mundy Scheme'' (1969) and ''Volunteers'' (1975). Both plays heavily satirised the

government of Ireland The Government of Ireland () is the executive (government), executive authority of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, headed by the , the head of government. The government – also known as the cabinet (government), cabinet – is composed of Mini ...

. The latter depicted an archaeological excavation on the day before the site was turned over to a hotel developer, using Dublin's Wood Quay controversy as its contemporary point of reference. The play's title refers to a group of

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various Resistance movement, resistance organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dominantly Catholic and dedicated to anti-imperiali ...

detainees who have been indefinitely interned by the Irish government, and the term ''Volunteer'' is both ironic, in that as prisoners they have no free will, and political, in that the IRA used the term to refer to its members. Using the site as a physical metaphor for the nation's history, the play's action examines how Irish history has been commodified, sanitized, and oversimplified to fit the political needs of society.McGrath, F. C. 1999. "Brian Friel's (Post) Colonial Drama  : Language, Illusion, and Politics". ''Irish Studies''. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press (1999). 99. By 1968, Friel was again living in Derry, a hotbed of the

Northern Ireland civil rights movement The Northern Ireland civil rights movement dates to the early 1960s, when a number of initiatives emerged in Northern Ireland which challenged the inequality and discrimination against ethnic Irish Catholics that was perpetrated by the Ulster Pr ...

, where incidents such as the Battle of the Bogside inspired Friel's choice to write a new play set in the city. The play Friel began drafting in Derry would eventually become '' The Freedom of the City'' (1973). Defying a government ban, Friel marched with members of the

Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA; ) was an organisation that campaigned for civil rights for Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Formed in Belfast on 9 April 1967,Bloody Sunday. During the march, British troops from the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment opened fire on the marchers, killing 14 people and wounding a further 26. His personal experience of being fired at by soldiers during the march greatly affected the drafting of ''The Freedom of the City'' as a heavily political play. In the interview, Friel recalled: "It was really a shattering experience that the

British army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

, this disciplined instrument, would go in as they did that time and shoot thirteen people... to have to throw yourself on the ground because people are firing at you is really a terrifying experience."

1976 – 1989

By the mid-1970s, Friel had moved away from overtly political plays to examine family dynamics in a manner that has attracted many comparisons to the work of Chekhov.Andrews, Elmer, ''The Art of Brian Friel.'' St. Martin's, 1995. '' Living Quarters'' (1977), a play that examines the suicide of a domineering father, is a retelling of the Theseus/Hippolytus myth in a contemporary Irish setting. This play, with its focus on several sisters and their ne'er-do-well brother, serves as a type of preparation for Friel's more successful ''

'' (1979), a Chekhovian study of a once-influential family's financial collapse and, perhaps, social liberation from the aristocratic myths that have constrained the children. ''Aristocrats'' was the first of three plays premiered over a period of eighteen months which would come to define Friel's career as a dramatist, the others being '' Faith Healer'' (1979) and ''

'' (1980). ''Faith Healer'' is a series of four conflicting monologues delivered by dead and living characters who struggle to understand the life and death of Frank Hardy, the play's itinerant healer who can neither understand nor command his unreliable powers, and the lives sacrificed to his destructive charismatic life. Many of Friel's earlier plays had incorporated assertively avant garde techniques: splitting the main character Gar into two actors in ''Philadelphia, Here I Come!'', portraying dead characters in "Winners" of ''Lovers,'' ''Freedom'', and ''Living Quarters'', a Brechtian structural alienation and choric figures in ''Freedom of the City'', metacharacters existing in a collective unconscious Limbo in ''Living Quarters''. These experiments came to fruition in ''Faith Healer''. Later in Friel's career, such experimental aspects became buried beneath the surface of more seemingly realist plays like ''

'' (1980) and ''

'' (1990); however, avant-garde techniques remain a fundamental aspect of Friel's work into his late career. ''Translations'' was premiered in 1980 at

Guildhall A guildhall, also known as a guild hall or guild house, is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Europe, with many surviving today in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commo ...

, Derry by the Field Day Theatre Company, with Stephen Rea, Liam Neeson, and Ray MacAnally. Set in 1833, it is a play about language, the meeting of English and Irish cultures, the looming Great Famine, the coming of a free national school system that will eliminate the traditional hedge schools, the English expedition to convert all Irish place names into English, and the crossed love between an Irish woman who speaks no English and an English soldier who speaks no Irish. It was an instant success. The innovative conceit of the play is to stage two language communities (the Gaelic and the English), which have few and very limited ways to speak to each other, for the English know no Irish, while only a few of the Irish know English. ''Translations'' went on to be one of the most translated and staged of all plays in the latter 20th century, performed in Estonia, Iceland, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland, along with most of the world's English-speaking countries (including South Africa, Canada, the U.S. and Australia). It won the

Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize The Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize was created in 1977, in memory of Christopher Ewart-Biggs, British Ambassador to Ireland, who was assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provi ...

for 1985.

Neil Jordan Neil Patrick Jordan (born 25 February 1950) is an Irish filmmaker and writer. He first achieved recognition for his short story collection, ''Night in Tunisia (short story collection), Night in Tunisia,'' which won the Guardian Fiction Prize in ...

completed a screenplay for a film version of ''Translations'' that was never produced. Friel commented on ''Translations'': "The play has to do with language and only language. And if it becomes overwhelmed by that political element, it is lost." Despite growing fame and success, the 1980s is considered Friel's artistic "Gap" as he published so few original works for the stage: ''Translations'' in 1980, '' The Communication Cord'' in 1982, and '' Making History'' in 1988. Privately, Friel complained both of the work required managing Field Day (granting written and live interviews, casting, arranging tours, etc.) and of his fear that he was "trying to impose a 'Field Day' political atmosphere" on his work. However, this is also a period during which he worked on several minor projects that filled out the decade: a translation of Chekhov's '' Three Sisters'' (1981), an adaptation of Turgenev's novel '' Fathers and Sons'' (1987), an edition of Charles McGlinchey's memoirs entitled '' The Last of the Name'' for Blackstaff Press (1986), and Charles Macklin's play '' The London Vertigo'' in 1990. Friel's decision to premiere ''

'' at the Abbey Theatre rather than as a Field Day production initiated his evolution away from involvement with Field Day, and he formally resigned as a director in 1994.

1990 – 2005

Friel returned to a position of Irish theatrical dominance during the 1990s, particularly with the release of ''

'' at the turn of the decade. Partly modelled on '' The Glass Menagerie'' by

, it is set in the late summer of 1936 and loosely based on the lives of Friel's mother and aunts who lived in Glenties, on the west coast of Donegal. Probably Friel's most successful play, it premiered at the

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre (), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland () is a theatre in Dublin, Ireland. First opening to the public on 27 December 1904, and moved from its original building after a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the p ...

, transferred to London's West End, and went on to Broadway. On Broadway, it won three

Tony Awards The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cere ...

in 1992, including Best Play. A film version, starring

, soon followed. Friel had been thinking about writing a " Lough Derg" play for several years, and his '' Wonderful Tennessee'' (less of a critical success after its premiere in 1993 when compared to other plays from this time) portrays three couples in their failed attempt to return to a pilgrimage sit to a small island off the Ballybeg coast, though they intend to return not to revive the religious rite but to celebrate the birthday of one of their members with alcohol and culinary delicacies. '' Give Me Your Answer Do!'' premiered in 1997 and recounts the lives and careers of two novelists and friends who pursued different paths; one writing shallow, popular works, the other writing works that refuse to conform to popular tastes. After an American university pays a small fortune for the popular writer's papers, the same collector arrives to review the manuscripts of his friend. The collector prepares to announce his findings at a dinner party when the existence of two "hard-core" pornographic novels based upon the writer's daughter forces all present to reassess. Entering his eighth decade, Friel found it difficult to maintain the writing pace that he returned to in the 1990s; indeed, between 1997 and 2003 he produced only the very short one-act plays "The Bear" (2002), "The Yalta Game" (2001), and "Afterplay" (2002), all published under the title '' Three Plays After'' (2002). The latter two plays stage Friel's continued fascination with Chekhov's work. "The Yalta Game" is concerned with Chekhov's story "The Lady with the Lapdog," "Afterplay" is an imagining of a near-romantic meeting between Andrey Prozorov of Chekhov's '' Three Sisters'' and Sonya Serebriakova of his '' Uncle Vanya''. It has been revived several times (including being part of the Friel/Gate Festival in September 2009) and had its world premiere at the Gate Theatre in Dublin. The most innovative work of Friel's late period is '' Performances'' (2003). A graduate researching the impact of

Leoš Janáček Leoš Janáček (, 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, Music theory, music theorist, Folkloristics, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian folk music, Moravian and other Slavs, Slavic music, includin ...

's platonic love for Kamila Stosslova on his work playfully and passionately argues with the composer, who appears to host her at his artistic retreat more than 70 years after his death; all the while, the Alba String Quartet's players intrude on the dialogue, warm up, then perform the first two movements of Janáček's Second String Quartet in a tableau that ends the play. '' The Home Place'' (2005), focusing on the ageing Christopher Gore and the last of Friel's plays set in Ballybeg, was also his final full-scale work. Although Friel had written plays about the Catholic gentry, this is his first play directly considering the Protestant experience. In this work, he considers the first hints of the waning of Ascendancy authority during the summer of 1878, the year before Charles Stuart Parnell became president of the Land League and initiated the Land Wars. After a sold-out season at the

Gate Theatre The Gate Theatre is a theatre on Cavendish Row in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1928. History Beginnings The Gate Theatre was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir with Daisy Bannard Cogley and Gearóid Ó Lochla ...

in Dublin, it transferred to London's West End on 25 May 2005, making its American premiere at the

Guthrie Theater The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The concept of the theater was born in 1959 in a series of discussions among Sir Tyrone Gut ...

in September 2007.

List of works

* '' A Sort of Freedom'' (unpublished radio play, 1958) * '' To This Hard House'' (unpublished radio play, 1958) * '' A Doubtful Paradise'' (unpublished, 1960) * '' The Enemy Within'' (1962) * '' The Blind Mice'' (unpublished, 1963) * '' Philadelphia, Here I Come!'' (1964) * '' The Founder Members'' (unpublished TV play, 1964) * '' Three Fathers, Three Sons'' (unpublished TV play, 1964) * ''

The Loves of Cass McGuire ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'' (1966) * '' Lovers: Winners and Losers'' (1967) * '' Crystal and Fox'' (1968) * '' The Mundy Scheme'' (1969) * ''Winners'' (1970) * '' The Gentle Island'' (1971) * '' The Freedom of the City'' (1973) * ''

Volunteers Volunteering is an elective and freely chosen act of an individual or group giving their time and labor, often for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergenc ...

'' (1975) * '' Farewell to Ardstraw'' (unpublished BBC TV play, 1976) * '' The Next Parish'' (unpublished BBC TV play, 1976) * '' Living Quarters'' (1977) * '' Faith Healer'' (1979) * ''

'' (1979) * ''

'' (1980) * '' Three Sisters'' (

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

translation, 1981) * '' American Welcome'' (7-minute one-act play, 1981) * '' The Communication Cord'' (1982) * ''The Diviner: The Best Short Stories of Brian Friel'' (1983) * '' Fathers and Sons'' (

Ivan Turgenev Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev ( ; rus, links=no, Иван Сергеевич ТургеневIn Turgenev's day, his name was written ., p=ɪˈvan sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tʊrˈɡʲenʲɪf; – ) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, poe ...

adaptation, 1987) * '' Making History'' (1988) * ''

'' (1990) * '' The London Vertigo'' (Charles Macklin adaptation, 1991) * '' A Month in the Country'' (Turgenev adaptation, 1992) * '' Wonderful Tennessee'' (1993) * '' Molly Sweeney'' (1994) * '' Give Me Your Answer, Do!'' (1997) * '' Uncle Vanya'' (Chekhov adaptation, 1998) * '' The Yalta Game'' (one-act Chekhov adaptation, 2001) * ''The Bear'' (one-act Chekhov adaptation, 2002) * '' Afterplay'' (one-act play, 2002) * ''Performances'' (70-minute one-act play, 2003) * '' The Home Place'' (2005) * '' Hedda Gabler'' (

Henrik Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright, poet and actor. Ibsen is considered the world's pre-eminent dramatist of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama." He pioneered ...

adaptation, 2008)

Reviews

* Fionnlagh, Uilleam, (1983), ''Celtic Omphalos'', a review of ''Translations'', in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), '' Cencrastus'' No. 12, Spring 1983, pp 43 & 44, * Ritchie, Harry (1984), ''Recollecting Friel'', a review of ''The Diviner'', in Parker, Geoff (ed.), '' Cencrastus'' No. 17, Summer 1984, p. 50,

Major prizes and honours

In 1989,

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

launched a "Brian Friel Season", a six-play series devoted to his work; he was the first living playwright to receive such an honour. In 1999 (April–August), Friel's 70th birthday was celebrated in Dublin with the Friel Festival, during which ten of his plays were staged or presented as dramatic readings throughout Dublin. A conference, National Library exhibition, film screenings, pre-show talks, and the launching of a special issue of ''The Irish University Review'' devoted to the playwright ran in conjunction with the festival. Also in 1999, ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

'' extended him the honour of a lifetime achievement award. On 22 February 2006, President

Mary McAleese Mary Patricia McAleese ( ; ; ; born 27 June 1951) is an Irish activist lawyer, academic, author, and former politician who served as the president of Ireland from November 1997 to November 2011. McAleese was first elected as president in 1997, ...

presented Friel with a gold

torc A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large rigid or stiff neck ring in metal, made either as a single piece or from strands twisted together. The great majority are open at the front, although some have hook and ring closures and a few hav ...

in recognition of his election to the position of Saoi by his fellow members of Aosdána. On acceptance of the gold Torc, Friel quipped: "I knew that being made a Saoi, really getting this award, is extreme unction; it is a final anointment—Aosdana's last rites." Only five members of Aosdána could hold this honour at the time, and Friel joined fellow Saoithe Louis le Brocquy, Benedict Kiely,

and Anthony Cronin. In August 2006, Heaney (also a friend of the Friels) who had been in attendance at the 75th birthday of Friel's wife in County Donegal, suffered a stroke on the morning after the celebration. In November 2008,

The Queen's University of Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is St ...

announced its intention to build a new theatre complex and research centre, to be named The Brian Friel Theatre and Centre for Theatre Research. Friel attended its opening in 2009. Friel's 80th birthday fell in 2009. The journal ''Irish Theatre International'' published a Special Issue to commemorate the occasion with seven articles devoted to the playwright. The Gate Theatre staged three plays (''Faith Healer,'' ''The Yalta Game,'' and ''Afterplay'') for several weeks in September. In the midst of the Gate's productions, the Abbey Theatre presented "A Birthday Celebration for Brian Friel," on 13 September 2009. Although not inclined to seek publicity, Friel attended the performance amid regular seating, received a cake while the audience sang "Happy Birthday," and mingled with well-wishers afterwards. The Abbey event was an evening of staged readings (excerpts from ''Philadelphia, Here I Come!'', ''Translations,'' and ''Dancing at Lughnasa''), the performance of Friel-specific songs and nocturnes, and readings by Thomas Kilroy and Seamus Heaney.

Selected awards

* 1988 Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play – ''

'' * 1989 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Play – ''

'' * 1991 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Play – ''

'' * 1992 New York Drama Critics Circle award for best play– ''

'' * 1992

Tony Award for Best Play The Tony Award for Best Play (formally, an Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) is an annual award given to the best new (non-musical) play on Broadway, as determined by Tony Award voters. There was no award in the Tonys' first year ...

– ''

'' * 1995 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Play – '' Molly Sweeney'' * 2006 Induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame * 200
UCD Ulysses Medal
* 2010 Donegal Person of the Year *Member of the

*Member of the British Royal Society of Literature *Member of the Irish Academy of Letters *Visiting Writer at Magee College (1970–71 academic year) *Honorary doctorate from Rosary College,

River Forest, Illinois River Forest is a suburban village adjacent to Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 11,717. Two universities make their home in River Forest, Dominican University (Ill ...

(1974)

Legacy

The

National Library of Ireland The National Library of Ireland (NLI; ) is Ireland's national library located in Dublin, in a building designed by Thomas Newenham Deane. The mission of the National Library of Ireland is "To collect, preserve, promote and make accessible the ...

houses the 160 boxes of The Brian Friel papers, containing notebooks, manuscripts, playbills, correspondence, contracts, unpublished manuscripts, programmes, production photos, articles, uncollected essays, and a vast collection of ephemera relating to Friel's career and creative process from 1959 through 2000. It does not contain his ''Irish Press'' articles, which can be found in the Dublin and Belfast newspaper libraries. In 2011, an additional set of Friel's papers were made available in the National Library of Ireland. These additional papers consist mainly of archival materials dating between 2000 and 2010.

Notes

References

External links

* * *
Brian Friel
at Aosdána
Faber and Faber
– UK publisher of Brian Friel's plays

Books and articles

ed. by Tony Coult
Brian Friel in Conversation
ed. by Paul Delaney
The Diviner: The Art of Brian Friel
by Richard Pine
Brian Friel, Ireland, and The North
by Scott Boltwood
Le Sujet et Les Je(ux) de Discours dans L'Oeuvre de Brian Friel
by Noel Fitzpatrick
Timeline: the life of Brian

Brian Friel
at ''

''
Funeral photos
from ''The Irish Times'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Friel, Brian 1929 births 2015 deaths Writers from County Tyrone People from Glenties People educated at St Columb's College Alumni of St Patrick's College, Maynooth Alumni of Ulster University Abbey Theatre Male short story writers from Northern Ireland Male dramatists and playwrights from Northern Ireland 20th-century dramatists and playwrights from Northern Ireland 20th-century male writers from Northern Ireland 20th-century short story writers from Northern Ireland The Irish Press people The New Yorker people Columnists from Northern Ireland Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize recipients Irish PEN Award for Literature winners Aosdána members Saoithe Nominated members of Seanad Éireann Members of the 18th Seanad Independent members of Seanad Éireann Writers from County Donegal People from Omagh