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Downloaded from
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Friel is the Irish playwright

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that everybody outside Ireland
knows.

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He is very much established
as the father of Irish theatre.

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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He treated success and failure
alike.

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He never revelled in success.

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Brian is one of the great
storytellers.

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What you don't forget is what
it was like to be talking to him.

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And sitting at a table with him.

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He was lovely. Grumpy.

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Like every older Irish man I know.
Grumpy and lovely.

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He was a showman but he was very,
very shy as well.

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But a few jokes and away he went,
y'know?

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(HE LAUGHS)

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Packed houses every night. Packed.
Wherever we went.

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Brian completely reinvented

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what theatre could be.

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(SHE SCREAMS)

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Really he was an experimenter
all his life.

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Brian was not just
a playwright of his time.

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But a playwright of his culture.

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REPORTER: "Meryl Streep was the star

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of Brian Friel's Dancing
at Lughnasa, set in Donegal."

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He said, 'We must speak to ourselves

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and if others wish to overhear us,
they're welcome.'

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I'm at Brian's study.
That's Ralph Fiennes with him.

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That's Meryl Streep.

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That's Tom Stoppard.

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Now at this stage Brian was on
his last months.

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(GENTLE MUSIC)

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I've everything rearranged.
Nothing was there

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that Brian would have had there.
He wouldn't have been caught dead.

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That's the Tony Award thing.

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Well he wouldn't have had them up.
Not at all.

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Not at all, not at all. No.

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I don't remember what he had
on the wall actually.

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But I've everything that I want
to see on the walls.

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Yes. Aye. That mattered to him.

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His funeral is there in the middle
of it all as well. (LAUGHS)

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It's such a lovely photograph.

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It was a lovely sunny day.

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(GENTLE MUSIC)

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FRIEL RECORDING: "There are of
course, what are called the facts.

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And since some people value the
tidiness they seem to afford,

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let's have the facts first
and be done with them.

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I was born in Omagh
in County Tyrone in 1929.

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My father was a principal of a three
teacher school outside the town.

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He taught me.

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In 1939, when I was 10,
we moved to Derry.

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I was at St Columb's College
for five years.

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St Patrick's College, Maynooth
for two and a half years.

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And St Joseph's training College
for one year.

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From 1950 until 1960

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I taught in various schools
in and around Derry.

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And since that time I have been
writing full time."

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Brian's family had taken a house
just across the road.

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I used to play the piano
so I would be there,

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playing an accompaniment
for anybody.

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People enjoyed it because
there used to be a regular...

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...crowd that would come
and they'd all do songs.

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I don't ever remember Brian singing,
funny but, cos he'd a lovely voice.

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It was Tenor and his voice
was trained.

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And that's where I met him first.

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Oh, he was the life and
soul of dances.

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And he used to do the MC
and he'd sing.

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And he's play the mouth organ
and he played the guitar.

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He was a man about town. (LAUGHS)

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V/O: Newly married and teaching
in Derry,

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Brian had begun to write
newspaper articles,

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short fiction and essays for radio.

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Experimenting with different forms

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as he tried to find his voice.

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Brian was a short story writer

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almost before he was a playwright.

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He had this contract
with the New Yorker magazine.

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And that was a huge deal
to get that contract because,

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you know at that stage in
the late 50's/early 60's

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he and Anne are living in Derry.

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He's teaching and he's gonna give up
teaching to be a full time writer.

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And the thing about the stories
as well

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is that they weren't written
and then forgotten.

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I mean the work, the plays
actually draw quite significantly

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on the stories.

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For example, this one,
in November 1961

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has the story 'The Foundry House'
in it.

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And 'The Foundry House' of course
became 'Aristocrats'.

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But nothing was wasted.
It was all there

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to be used, to be brought back
to life.

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To be transformed when he gave
himself over full time

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to the theatre.

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FRIEL RECORDING: "I found myself
at 30 years of age

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embarked on a theatrical career

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and almost totally ignorant
of the mechanics of play writing

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and play production apart from
a modest intuitive knowledge.

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Just like a painter who has
never studied anatomy

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or a composer
with no training in harmony.

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So I packed my bags

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and with my wife and two children

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went to Minneapolis in Minnesota

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where a new theatre was being
created by Tyrone Guthrie.

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And there I lived for six months."

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That's me. That's my daughter Mary

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who's got a teddy bear of sorts
and that's my daughter Paddy.

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It's the first night of one
of the plays in Minneapolis.

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We had no income.

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All our... All our finances went
into this trip.

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But we were foolish probably
and young.

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Tyrone Guthrie was probably
the most important theatre director

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in the world,
the English speaking world.

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He knew Brian's work,
the short stories

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that Brian had written
in the New Yorker.

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And Guthrie invited him to come
to Minnesota in Minneapolis

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as an intern, as an observer.

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Someone who would just sit around

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and watch how plays were put
together.

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Guthrie could work magic.

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I think Brian
just thought it was amazing

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that the audience were enthralled
by what they were seeing.

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He came away from that and attempted
to write plays that...

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...nobody else had ever done before.

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He would experiment and he tried
in every play almost...

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...to do something different.

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FRIEL RECORDING:
Those months in America

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gave me a sense of liberation.

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Remember, this was my first parole

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from inbred, claustrophobic Ireland.

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And that sense of liberation
conferred on me

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a valuable self confidence.

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And a necessary perspective.

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So that the first play I wrote
immediately after I came home,

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and that was
'Philadelphia, Here I Come!',

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was a lot more assured

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than anything I had
attempted before.

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(LIVELY MUSIC)

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Think back to that opening night of
'Philadelphia, Here I Come!'

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in Dublin in 1964.

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I mean when the lights
go up on the stage,

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it's another Irish rural kitchen.

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Traditional fare, y'know?
Here we go again.

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And then you have Gar Public
and Gar Private.

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And Irish theatre has changed.

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Shall we have a little read of it?

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Shall we try you being Private
for a minute, Charlie?

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Okey-doke. And you Public? Yeah.

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Here was a play about a young man

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who was about to leave Ireland

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and all the reasons that he was
about to leave Ireland

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were encapsulated in that one night

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the night before he left.

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The genius of Friel

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was to divide that into the public
and the private self.

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The public self,
a bit like Brian himself

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was diffident and not out there
and gregarious.

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But the private self was witty,

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sharp, intelligent.
A very alive figure.

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There's something really important
about that idea of walking around

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with a secret version of yourself
inside, isn't it?

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I can think of three times
where I've seen a play

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or read a play and been envious
of...

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...some technical idea
in the middle of it.

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And two of those three times

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the plays were by Brian.

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I don't think anybody before then

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had thought of having two actors
playing one role simultaneously.

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Remember, you're going.

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At 7.15 you're still going.

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He's nothing but a drunken oul
schoolmaster.

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A conceited arrogant washout.

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Aw God, the creator,
the redeemer of all the faith.

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Get a grip on yourself. Don't be
a damn sentimental fool.

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# Philadelphia, here I come.

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Moira and Una and Rose
and Agnes and Lizzie.

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(US ACCENT) Yes sir, you're gonna
cut a bit of a dash

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in them there states.

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Great big sexy dames
and nightclubs and high living.

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And films and dances and...

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Cathy. My own darling Cathy.

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# Where bowers of flowers bloom
in the Spring.

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I can't. # Each morning at dawning
everything is bright and gay.

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# A sun-kissed miss says
don't be late, that's...

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Come on, sing up man!

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I... I...

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# That's why I can't hardly wait.

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# Philadelphia, here I come.

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That's it laddy buck.

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(TOGETHER, SINGING)
Philadelphia, here I come!

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This is extraordinary stuff.

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While he's very much established

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as almost the father
of Irish theatre

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and certainly in the eyes of people

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from outside this island -

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really, he was, I think
an experimenter all his life.

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I always just thought
he was the bee's knees

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as a playwright.

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And he knew that I thought that.

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And with courteous reciprocity

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he said something nice
about my work.

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So you know we had a good basis
for our friendship.

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And 'Philadelphia, Here I Come!'

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was just so effective.

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(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

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Every single part of it
is a critique

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of Irish society in the early 60's.

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That forced thousands upon thousands

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upon thousands of people to
emigrate. To get away.

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The stifling nature
of church and state.

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The stifling nature of
small town Ireland.

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NARRATOR:
'Philadelphia, Here I Come!',

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is set in the fictional small town
of Ballybeg,

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an imagined version of
Glenties in Donegal

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where he spent his childhood
holidays.

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Brian would use Ballybeg
as the creative landscape

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of his plays throughout his career.

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Ballybeg, it's the anglicised
version of 'baile beag'. Small town.

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Ballybeg doesn't exist,
y'know? It's not on any map.

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'If I had to spend another week
in Ballybeg,

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I'd go off my bloody head.'

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He spent his summers in Donegal

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with his mother's side
of the family, the McLoones.

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Glenties was a special place

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in both his imagination

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and his heart.

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In the fields and houses

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and families of Ballybeg

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he was able to create

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a theatrical world

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that connected with his emotional
and inner world.

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I think it's just one of
his great achievements.

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NARRATOR: In 1966, 'Philadelphia,
Here I Come!'

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transferred to Broadway.

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FRIEL RECORDING: And when
the curtain fell

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after that second of mental
adjustment, they clapped and cheered

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and called 'Bravo'.

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And standing limp at the back
of the auditorium

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I didn't give a damn
what the critics would say.

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Happily, they were rapturous
next day.

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They paid us
the highest compliment they knew.

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They said briefly that
we were a hit.

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NARRATOR: Brian struck gold
with his first play

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to be produced on Broadway.

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But following it up with a second
hit proved more difficult.

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Cass Maguire which came
after Philadelphia...

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That bombed very quick.
And you see Guthrie was great

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because he said you just
have to rise above.

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Y'know, this was his phrase.

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And get up and start again.

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00:13:49,440 --> 00:13:51,639
So he learned that pretty
early on in his career.

249
00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:53,760
But I think it was
the best thing ever

250
00:13:53,879 --> 00:13:56,319
because if he'd had another hit
after Philadelphia

251
00:13:56,440 --> 00:13:58,559
which was a terrific hit
in New York

252
00:13:58,679 --> 00:14:00,800
I think he would have said goodbye
to me. (LAUGHS)

253
00:14:00,919 --> 00:14:03,000
Very quickly. (LAUGHS)

254
00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:06,760
It would have been
a different life, yeah.

255
00:14:08,120 --> 00:14:11,839
(GENTLE MUSIC)

256
00:14:19,879 --> 00:14:22,760
Let me take this little treasure
chest.

257
00:14:23,400 --> 00:14:26,400
This this actually came from
the Friel household.

258
00:14:26,519 --> 00:14:29,360
After Brian died,
Anne and the family

259
00:14:29,479 --> 00:14:31,919
very generously gave me this.

260
00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:35,720
And in these drawers
are a range of letters

261
00:14:35,839 --> 00:14:39,119
from other people to Tyrone Guthrie

262
00:14:39,239 --> 00:14:42,159
who of course was such an influence
on Brian's career.

263
00:14:42,280 --> 00:14:44,680
I put some of Brian's letters

264
00:14:44,799 --> 00:14:46,799
in here as well.

265
00:14:47,919 --> 00:14:49,919
The humour comes across certainly.

266
00:14:50,040 --> 00:14:52,479
I mean kind of impish humour
is all over them.

267
00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:54,600
And he signs off "TT".

268
00:14:54,720 --> 00:14:57,760
Now "TT" is Totus Tuus in Latin.

269
00:14:57,879 --> 00:14:59,879
Totally yours.

270
00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:02,960
Now we all, Brian, all of us went
to St Columb's College.

271
00:15:03,080 --> 00:15:05,080
We all learned Latin.

272
00:15:05,199 --> 00:15:08,040
So on one level you could think well
that's just a homage to the Latin.

273
00:15:08,159 --> 00:15:11,280
But actually Totus Tuus was also

274
00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:13,439
a song by Dana...

275
00:15:14,799 --> 00:15:18,159
...to mark the papal visit of 1979.
(LAUGHS)

276
00:15:18,280 --> 00:15:21,360
And that's what Totus Tuus
is about.

277
00:15:22,640 --> 00:15:24,640
Brian was very encouraging.

278
00:15:24,760 --> 00:15:28,760
The first project that I did was
a drama, 'Tush A Bye Baby'.

279
00:15:28,879 --> 00:15:32,080
And Brian sent me this
lovely wee card,

280
00:15:32,199 --> 00:15:34,400
just straight after.

281
00:15:34,519 --> 00:15:36,360
He wrote to people all the time.

282
00:15:36,479 --> 00:15:38,519
Y'know he would drop wee cards,
that was his thing.

283
00:15:38,640 --> 00:15:40,519
he did his correspondence
in the morning.

284
00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:42,559
But he kept in touch, y'know,

285
00:15:42,680 --> 00:15:45,400
he was somebody who really
connected with people.

286
00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:48,559
And he wrote "Dear Margo,
wonderful news from Gweedore

287
00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:51,159
and so well deserved. Terrific.
Do it again.

288
00:15:51,280 --> 00:15:53,439
(LAUGHS) Very best, Brian".

289
00:15:53,559 --> 00:15:57,280
And it was that do it again thing
that really was inspirational

290
00:15:57,400 --> 00:15:59,439
y'know that he believed
you could do something.

291
00:16:00,159 --> 00:16:02,799
I remember my father talking about
Brian Friel when we were children.

292
00:16:02,919 --> 00:16:06,239
He used to go to the Waterside
Chapel. He and his wife, Anne.

293
00:16:06,839 --> 00:16:08,960
And I remember him pointing him out
to me one day and saying

294
00:16:09,080 --> 00:16:11,640
that man there is a vey great man
you know.

295
00:16:12,159 --> 00:16:14,519
Derry people claim Bran Friel.

296
00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:17,879
I am quite chauvinistic about the
fact that Brian comes from here.

297
00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:20,280
And wrote about here
and understood this place

298
00:16:20,400 --> 00:16:22,600
and understood how people thought.

299
00:16:29,400 --> 00:16:31,519
"You're a Derry man born and bred.
That's right."

300
00:16:31,640 --> 00:16:33,600
REPORTER V/O:
Paddy Friel, schoolmaster

301
00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:35,640
and father of the playwright
Brian Friel.

302
00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:37,680
"Has it been your experience
that your students

303
00:16:37,799 --> 00:16:39,720
have been able to get
a fair crack of the whip?"

304
00:16:39,839 --> 00:16:41,839
"Well, the very fact
that they are Catholics

305
00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:45,640
is sufficient to debar them
from employment

306
00:16:45,760 --> 00:16:47,919
in the corporation."

307
00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:50,040
"I've heard since I've been here

308
00:16:50,159 --> 00:16:52,400
a rather peculiar fact and that
is that the Guild Hall

309
00:16:52,519 --> 00:16:55,080
which is the centre of
the corporations activities

310
00:16:55,199 --> 00:16:58,919
here in the city is exclusively
a Unionist employer.

311
00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:01,479
Is this so? That is quite correct.

312
00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:04,320
There's not even a Catholic...

313
00:17:05,720 --> 00:17:07,720
...cleaner employed
in the Guild Hall.

314
00:17:07,839 --> 00:17:10,320
It's policy to keep Catholics

315
00:17:10,439 --> 00:17:13,640
out of the Guild Hall itself."

316
00:17:13,760 --> 00:17:17,519
"We are demanding homes, employment,
freedom of speech

317
00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:19,640
and freedom of assembly."

318
00:17:19,760 --> 00:17:21,960
"We do not wish bloodshed or
violence."

319
00:17:22,080 --> 00:17:24,960
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

320
00:17:25,479 --> 00:17:27,680
ANNE FRIEL: That was the first
march really.

321
00:17:28,640 --> 00:17:32,040
October the 5th, 1968.

322
00:17:34,439 --> 00:17:36,720
I can see Brian, I can see myself.

323
00:17:36,839 --> 00:17:39,760
And they've spelt the word
'equal rights' wrong

324
00:17:39,879 --> 00:17:41,879
on the big poster.

325
00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:44,600
We then left the thing

326
00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:46,839
and went through and I remember
at the time thinking

327
00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:50,000
what are all those police doing
at the back of the marchers?

328
00:17:50,119 --> 00:17:52,600
And we went on up and up the steps

329
00:17:52,720 --> 00:17:55,199
to Spencer Road
and came down Spencer Road

330
00:17:55,320 --> 00:17:58,799
and over the bridge without knowing
that anything had gone wrong...

331
00:17:59,960 --> 00:18:02,040
...with the march.

332
00:18:02,159 --> 00:18:04,199
Thinking that the police let them go

333
00:18:04,320 --> 00:18:06,320
or I don't know how we thought it
was going to end.

334
00:18:06,439 --> 00:18:09,640
And it was only when we came back
to the City Hotel reception

335
00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:12,119
that we discovered it had gone mad.
Crazy.

336
00:18:12,239 --> 00:18:14,479
(SHOUTS AND SCREAMS)

337
00:18:20,680 --> 00:18:22,960
It was because the cameras
were there that time

338
00:18:23,080 --> 00:18:25,680
and it photographed police

339
00:18:25,799 --> 00:18:28,359
treating people pretty badly.

340
00:18:28,479 --> 00:18:30,479
That that's how it got all
the publicity then

341
00:18:30,600 --> 00:18:34,119
and started the whole thing. The
protests. The civil rights protests.

342
00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:39,000
(SHOUTING, DRAMATIC MUSIC)

343
00:18:39,119 --> 00:18:41,359
I'll tell you why you march.

344
00:18:41,479 --> 00:18:44,040
Because you live with eleven kids
and a sick husband

345
00:18:44,159 --> 00:18:46,359
in two rooms that aren't fit
for animals.

346
00:18:48,119 --> 00:18:50,680
Because you exist on a state
subsistence

347
00:18:50,799 --> 00:18:53,000
that is about enough to keep you
alive but too small

348
00:18:53,119 --> 00:18:55,519
to fire your guts.

349
00:18:57,600 --> 00:19:01,359
Because you know your children are
caught in the same morass.

350
00:19:01,479 --> 00:19:03,760
Because for the first time
in your life

351
00:19:03,879 --> 00:19:06,400
you grumbled and someone else
grumbled.

352
00:19:06,519 --> 00:19:08,919
And someone else.

353
00:19:09,040 --> 00:19:11,720
And you heard each other and became
aware that there were hundreds,

354
00:19:11,839 --> 00:19:14,680
thousands, millions of us all
over the world.

355
00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:17,680
And in a vague groping way,

356
00:19:17,799 --> 00:19:19,799
you were outraged.

357
00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:24,359
FRIEL RECORDING: The Northern
situation is basic

358
00:19:24,479 --> 00:19:28,559
to everything that one does I think,
Hugh. And if you are as I was

359
00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:31,439
a member of what is known
as the Northern minority,

360
00:19:31,559 --> 00:19:34,519
I think you're conditioned from,
almost from birth.

361
00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:38,320
Now I have tackled it only once
directly,

362
00:19:38,439 --> 00:19:40,559
In a play called
'The Freedom of the City'.

363
00:19:42,359 --> 00:19:45,280
But I still think that's true
of all the northern writers.

364
00:19:46,119 --> 00:19:48,519
If it's not handled directly

365
00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:50,640
it certainly, it informs
everything they write

366
00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:53,320
and it informs all their attitudes.

367
00:19:55,760 --> 00:19:59,479
'Freedom of the City'
is set in 1970 in Derry,

368
00:19:59,600 --> 00:20:02,080
in the aftermath of a broken up

369
00:20:02,199 --> 00:20:05,000
civil rights march,
a banned civil rights march,

370
00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:09,239
which was broken up by the police

371
00:20:09,359 --> 00:20:11,280
and the British army.

372
00:20:11,400 --> 00:20:13,640
Loosely based on the events of
Bloody Sunday -

373
00:20:13,760 --> 00:20:16,559
which I was present at actually -
it was on a big civil rights march

374
00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:18,919
during Bloody Sunday which was
the 30th January 1972

375
00:20:19,040 --> 00:20:22,159
thirteen people were killed--

376
00:20:22,280 --> 00:20:24,760
were murdered by the British army.

377
00:20:24,879 --> 00:20:27,199
And one man died later
of his wounds.

378
00:20:27,320 --> 00:20:29,600
And Brian's play
'Freedom of the City'

379
00:20:29,720 --> 00:20:32,320
is his own imagined version

380
00:20:32,439 --> 00:20:35,839
of three of the civil rights
demonstrators

381
00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:38,879
breaking in to the Guild Hall
in Derry.

382
00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:41,359
So it was a very symbolic play
in that sense.

383
00:20:42,680 --> 00:20:46,600
Lily is this Catholic woman,
married woman,

384
00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:48,839
working as a cleaner.

385
00:20:48,960 --> 00:20:51,320
Mother to eleven children.

386
00:20:51,439 --> 00:20:53,640
Living in abject poverty.

387
00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:56,400
There's a great maternal warmth
to her.

388
00:20:56,519 --> 00:20:59,359
A great colloquial turn of phrase.
So from an audience perspective

389
00:20:59,479 --> 00:21:01,559
like you'd say oh, I know her!

390
00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:03,559
I know what she is.

391
00:21:04,839 --> 00:21:07,839
The police surround the building.

392
00:21:10,080 --> 00:21:13,280
And at the end forces them
to come out.

393
00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:15,919
And they come out and they're shot.

394
00:21:16,040 --> 00:21:18,439
He needed an audience to feel

395
00:21:18,559 --> 00:21:20,760
the vulnerability and the...

396
00:21:20,879 --> 00:21:22,919
...you know because
they were going to die.

397
00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:27,159
Each of the three characters,
Michael, Skinner and Lily

398
00:21:27,280 --> 00:21:31,239
speak after the moment
they have been shot.

399
00:21:33,239 --> 00:21:36,760
And with Lily you get this wisdom

400
00:21:36,879 --> 00:21:39,239
and self awareness
that she hasn't displayed

401
00:21:39,919 --> 00:21:43,400
throughout the entire play.
And it's to his credit

402
00:21:43,519 --> 00:21:46,040
of his bloody genius
that it doesn't jar.

403
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:51,080
'In the silence before my body
disintegrated

404
00:21:51,199 --> 00:21:55,159
into a purple convulsion,
I thought I glimpsed a tiny truth.

405
00:21:57,479 --> 00:21:59,479
That life had eluded me

406
00:21:59,600 --> 00:22:02,280
because never once in my 43 years

407
00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:06,320
had an experience, an event,
even a small unimportant happening

408
00:22:06,439 --> 00:22:08,680
been isolated and assessed

409
00:22:08,799 --> 00:22:10,839
and articulated.'

410
00:22:11,839 --> 00:22:14,760
'And the fact that this, my last
experience

411
00:22:14,879 --> 00:22:17,439
was defined by this perception

412
00:22:17,559 --> 00:22:19,559
this was the...

413
00:22:19,680 --> 00:22:22,600
...culmination of sorrow.

414
00:22:24,479 --> 00:22:27,559
In a way, I died of grief.'

415
00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:32,159
Now I'm reading that smiling
because I think it's the most...

416
00:22:34,799 --> 00:22:37,119
...insightful thing
I've ever read.

417
00:22:37,239 --> 00:22:40,400
The fact that this,
my last experience

418
00:22:40,519 --> 00:22:42,559
was defined by this perception.

419
00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:45,119
It was the culmination of sorrow.

420
00:22:47,559 --> 00:22:50,239
To at 43 to look
at your entire life

421
00:22:50,359 --> 00:22:52,760
and that moment afterwards go

422
00:22:52,879 --> 00:22:54,879
ah, not once...

423
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:57,799
...and then to die again of grief.

424
00:22:57,919 --> 00:23:00,680
Oh! Delicious, delicious.

425
00:23:01,559 --> 00:23:04,040
Awful. Awful.

426
00:23:06,799 --> 00:23:08,799
And in that moment

427
00:23:08,919 --> 00:23:11,320
because he's allowed you to fall
in love with her,

428
00:23:11,439 --> 00:23:13,400
you die yourself of grief.

429
00:23:15,439 --> 00:23:19,199
It was really an extraordinary
political play that...

430
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:24,080
...was not what Brian
had been used to writing.

431
00:23:24,199 --> 00:23:26,239
He's so controlled normally
there's a slight sort of...

432
00:23:26,359 --> 00:23:28,519
...he's angry in this.

433
00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:33,519
I was doing 'Freedom of the City'

434
00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:36,320
directed by albert Finney
in the Royal Court

435
00:23:36,439 --> 00:23:38,640
and that's when I met Brian

436
00:23:38,760 --> 00:23:42,680
and it was really the combination
of those two great men

437
00:23:43,879 --> 00:23:47,080
made this an incredible
experience for me.

438
00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:50,439
And the great thing about Albert

439
00:23:50,559 --> 00:23:53,320
who is a wonderful man
of the theatre you know

440
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,199
When he read it he said
we have to do this now.

441
00:23:57,879 --> 00:24:00,080
This is happening now.
This happened...

442
00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:02,720
...a few months ago.

443
00:24:02,839 --> 00:24:04,960
We have to do it now.

444
00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:08,799
NARRATOR: The Royal Court
in London premiered the play

445
00:24:08,919 --> 00:24:10,919
at the same time
it opened in Dublin.

446
00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:13,040
But it was not well received.

447
00:24:14,199 --> 00:24:16,400
The plays depiction
of the British army

448
00:24:16,519 --> 00:24:18,879
and the judicial report
into their role in Bloody Sunday

449
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:21,479
was condemned as sheer propaganda

450
00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:24,199
far fetched and unbelievable.

451
00:24:25,199 --> 00:24:27,760
There was an actor playing
a British soldier in it

452
00:24:27,879 --> 00:24:31,680
and I remember talking to me
and saying...

453
00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:37,400
...oh, he says, I don't believe
a word of it.

454
00:24:37,519 --> 00:24:39,519
No, they must have been doing
something, those people.

455
00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:43,799
I mean it's a very big learn

456
00:24:43,919 --> 00:24:46,239
for an English audience.

457
00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:48,519
It's not a surprise

458
00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:50,799
that the public didn't go for it.

459
00:24:50,919 --> 00:24:53,239
And then we had some bomb scares.

460
00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:55,919
And that was enough to
empty the place.

461
00:24:56,720 --> 00:24:59,239
"When you get the British army
moving into your agent's office

462
00:24:59,359 --> 00:25:02,040
and asking questions
about your ringing back to Belfast

463
00:25:02,159 --> 00:25:04,720
to ask questions about you or when
you get threatening letters

464
00:25:04,839 --> 00:25:08,400
you are really astonished. I found
that I was being threatened

465
00:25:08,519 --> 00:25:11,119
by all kinds of people
and all kinds of institutions

466
00:25:11,239 --> 00:25:13,720
and it seemed disproportionate...

467
00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:17,600
...to the statement I had made."

468
00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:19,799
In those days the New York Times

469
00:25:19,919 --> 00:25:22,600
they either made or broke a show.

470
00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:25,479
You know? None of the other
papers really counted.

471
00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:28,159
So the critic there was a man
called Clive Barnes

472
00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:31,239
and he was an Englishman
and Brian was very uneasy

473
00:25:31,359 --> 00:25:33,760
about an Englishman
reviewing this play on Broadway.

474
00:25:33,879 --> 00:25:37,640
He just dreaded it.

475
00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:42,680
And all of the review just was...

476
00:25:44,199 --> 00:25:46,199
...the English couldn't have done...

477
00:25:46,320 --> 00:25:48,799
...the British would never do
anything like that.

478
00:25:48,919 --> 00:25:51,680
Then it closed.
And that was tough.

479
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:56,760
After the great successes
on Broadway,

480
00:25:56,879 --> 00:25:59,919
there was a period then
when his plays

481
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:02,199
weren't successful in New York.

482
00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:04,359
I mean 'Freedom of the City',

483
00:26:04,479 --> 00:26:07,159
you know, it bombed on Broadway.

484
00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:10,400
When you would go to those openings

485
00:26:10,519 --> 00:26:13,040
there would be a list of interviews

486
00:26:13,159 --> 00:26:15,159
all lined up for you the next day

487
00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:17,280
and for the next week.

488
00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:20,600
If you're a failure,
they're all cancelled.

489
00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:24,439
That's it, y'know, so you've gotta
get used to the brush off.

490
00:26:24,559 --> 00:26:26,919
And I remember one time he said
he was sitting on a cushion

491
00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:30,799
on the floor and all the money men
were there.

492
00:26:30,919 --> 00:26:33,680
Waiting, waiting, waiting for
the reviews to come in you see.

493
00:26:33,799 --> 00:26:37,680
And who the hell is this author
anyway he says. (LAUGHS)

494
00:26:37,799 --> 00:26:40,280
One of them was saying to the other.
And he put up his hand

495
00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:42,519
and said "I'm the author".

496
00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:45,159
And then it didn't work.
The play didn't work.

497
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:47,400
They almost kicked him out,
he says.

498
00:26:47,519 --> 00:26:49,839
Aw, it was awful. A humiliation.

499
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:53,680
Oh, no things were very lean
for a long time

500
00:26:53,799 --> 00:26:55,799
in the 70's.

501
00:26:55,919 --> 00:26:58,839
One play after another.

502
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:00,960
Wasn't doing very well.

503
00:27:02,479 --> 00:27:04,479
INTERVIEWER: "Where are you
going from there?"

504
00:27:05,839 --> 00:27:08,159
FRIEL: "I have no idea at all.
I'm...

505
00:27:09,839 --> 00:27:12,119
...a bit lost at the moment
and very confused."

506
00:27:13,879 --> 00:27:15,879
There was a kind of a lean period

507
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:18,559
where, I mean they were
perfectly good plays

508
00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:21,960
but they just didn't seem
to capture the zeitgeist

509
00:27:22,080 --> 00:27:24,439
or whatever it was.
I'm thinking of plays like

510
00:27:24,559 --> 00:27:27,239
'Volunteers' or 'Living Quarters'.

511
00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:31,400
Plays that just didn't take.

512
00:27:31,879 --> 00:27:35,559
And that must have been very
difficult for a writer.

513
00:27:36,879 --> 00:27:40,159
To have to deal with that because
you must begin to wonder

514
00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:42,640
have I lost the touch?

515
00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:45,879
Is the muse as it were deserting?

516
00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:49,680
And then I think
the real feeling

517
00:27:49,799 --> 00:27:51,879
of failure on Broadway

518
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:54,119
was when they did 'Faith Healer'.

519
00:27:56,680 --> 00:27:59,000
NARRATOR: The story of
an itinerant healer

520
00:27:59,119 --> 00:28:02,359
his wife and manager as they travel
through remote villages

521
00:28:02,479 --> 00:28:05,040
offering cures to the sick
and the desperate,

522
00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:08,919
this new play was like nothing
Brian had ever written before

523
00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:12,080
and broke all the rules of
conventional drama.

524
00:28:13,559 --> 00:28:15,839
Nobody in Ireland would touch it.

525
00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:19,479
It was four monologues
which first of all was different.

526
00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:22,720
And then it was too scary
for actors.

527
00:28:22,839 --> 00:28:25,119
Only then, for some reason or other

528
00:28:25,239 --> 00:28:27,760
James Mason wanted to go back
into theatre.

529
00:28:27,879 --> 00:28:30,040
He was at that stage at
the height of his film career

530
00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:35,000
But he undertook to do it
in New York.

531
00:28:35,119 --> 00:28:38,199
But the theatre critics
just said that's not a play.

532
00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:40,559
Monologues. That's not a play.

533
00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:43,119
So it closed after three weeks.

534
00:28:43,239 --> 00:28:45,239
And it would have closed much
earlier only James Mason

535
00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:47,519
didn't take any salary.

536
00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:49,720
He didn't want to leave with only
working for... I mean they can close

537
00:28:49,839 --> 00:28:53,640
in three days there if they want to
but it ran for three weeks.

538
00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:56,320
I was artistic director
of The Abbey at the time

539
00:28:56,439 --> 00:28:58,559
and Brian came back,
we were doing 'Aristocrats',

540
00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:01,919
his play, here.
And Brian came back and he was...

541
00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:04,479
...pretty devastated
by the experience.

542
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:07,640
And I'd read the play and thought
this is a masterpiece.

543
00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:11,199
I mean it was just,
it was so unusual.

544
00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:13,239
The monologue form.

545
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:16,000
The almost Rashomon

546
00:29:16,119 --> 00:29:18,439
kind of three different versions
of the same story.

547
00:29:18,559 --> 00:29:20,559
I just thought we have to do it.

548
00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:22,799
And I said it to Brian.

549
00:29:22,919 --> 00:29:25,199
I remember we were sitting
in The Plough Lounge

550
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:27,360
across the road from The Abbey

551
00:29:27,479 --> 00:29:29,600
and I said we have to do this Brian

552
00:29:29,720 --> 00:29:31,720
we have to do this play.
"Oh no, no, no.

553
00:29:31,839 --> 00:29:35,760
I don't know that I could take
the devastation of it again".

554
00:29:35,879 --> 00:29:38,400
And then about two days later,
he called me.

555
00:29:38,519 --> 00:29:41,720
And he said "If you can persuade
Donal McCann

556
00:29:41,839 --> 00:29:43,919
to play Frank Hardy,

557
00:29:44,040 --> 00:29:46,320
we should do it".

558
00:29:47,919 --> 00:29:51,159
Brian knew that this was the man

559
00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:54,040
who could find the core
of Frank Hardy.

560
00:29:54,159 --> 00:29:56,439
The complex, dark

561
00:29:56,559 --> 00:29:59,479
the balance between that
and the showman.

562
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:04,239
And we did it here at
The Abbey in 1980.

563
00:30:04,360 --> 00:30:08,320
And it transformed
the history of the play.

564
00:30:09,119 --> 00:30:11,159
It suddenly was recognised

565
00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:14,479
as the masterpiece that it is.

566
00:30:16,119 --> 00:30:18,119
'Faith healer.

567
00:30:19,239 --> 00:30:21,239
Faith healing.

568
00:30:23,320 --> 00:30:25,799
A craft without an apprenticeship.

569
00:30:25,919 --> 00:30:28,199
A ministry without responsibility

570
00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:31,760
A vocation...

571
00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:34,640
without a ministry.'

572
00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:37,919
His innovation as a playwright

573
00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:40,479
was blinding.

574
00:30:41,080 --> 00:30:43,159
I mean, y'know when we did
'Faith Healer'

575
00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:45,360
and I read 'Faith Healer'
and I thought

576
00:30:45,479 --> 00:30:47,360
'No!

577
00:30:47,479 --> 00:30:50,199
It's just not possible.
How can you do that?'

578
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:53,400
Four monologues, no plot,
no dialogue,

579
00:30:53,519 --> 00:30:55,559
no action, just storytelling.

580
00:30:55,680 --> 00:30:57,760
How do you keep an audience engaged?

581
00:30:57,879 --> 00:31:00,119
And I used to watch Donal McCann,

582
00:31:00,239 --> 00:31:02,799
the most brilliant Francis Hardy
ever.

583
00:31:02,919 --> 00:31:05,519
And every night he entranced me.

584
00:31:05,640 --> 00:31:08,400
But it was the quality of
Brian's storytelling.

585
00:31:08,519 --> 00:31:10,519
'I walked across the yard
towards them.'

586
00:31:10,640 --> 00:31:12,960
I played in 'Aristocrats'

587
00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:15,119
and I played Grace in
'Faith Healer'.

588
00:31:16,159 --> 00:31:19,640
And both those women,
y'know Grace particularly

589
00:31:21,119 --> 00:31:25,040
she was so hurt, so damaged.

590
00:31:27,479 --> 00:31:30,479
I sort of love all here sort of...
she's very precise.

591
00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:33,720
And her legal mind.

592
00:31:33,839 --> 00:31:36,519
And the choice of language

593
00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:39,559
and words that she uses
and that she self corrects -

594
00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:41,600
a lot.

595
00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:45,559
And he sometimes writes
very long sentences

596
00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:48,080
with lots of parentheses.

597
00:31:48,199 --> 00:31:50,519
And that to me,

598
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:52,640
suddenly you start to float

599
00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:54,799
and it really is a bit like
the way I'm speaking but better,

600
00:31:54,919 --> 00:31:58,600
where it's somebody's train
of thought

601
00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:00,720
and you're going
with that train of thought

602
00:32:00,839 --> 00:32:02,839
and she doubles back on herself
and then... And I just...

603
00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:06,040
I felt that was revealing
so much of her state of mind.

604
00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:10,239
"Anyhow, that's where the baby
is buried

605
00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:13,159
in Kinlochbervie in Sutherland in
the north of Scotland".

606
00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:15,799
"Frank made a wooden cross

607
00:32:15,919 --> 00:32:18,799
to mark the grave and painted it
white and wrote across it -

608
00:32:18,919 --> 00:32:22,640
'Infant child of
Francis and Grace Hardy'.

609
00:32:23,199 --> 00:32:25,960
No name of course
because it was stillborn.

610
00:32:26,080 --> 00:32:28,919
Just 'Infant child'.

611
00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:31,159
And I'm sure that cross
is gone by now

612
00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:33,600
because it was a fragile thing and
there were cows in the field

613
00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:35,879
and it wasn't
a real cemetery anyway.

614
00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:38,919
And I had the baby in the back of
the van and there was no nurse

615
00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:41,519
or doctor, so no-one knew
anything about it

616
00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:43,919
except Frank and Teddy and me.

617
00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:46,239
And there was no clergyman
at the graveside.

618
00:32:46,360 --> 00:32:49,239
Frank just said a few prayers
that he made up.

619
00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:51,680
So there is no record

620
00:32:51,799 --> 00:32:54,000
of any kind.

621
00:32:54,119 --> 00:32:56,479
And he never talked about it
afterwards.

622
00:32:56,600 --> 00:32:59,119
Never once mentioned it again.

623
00:32:59,239 --> 00:33:02,280
And because he didn't,
neither did I.

624
00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:04,400
So that was it.

625
00:33:04,519 --> 00:33:07,119
Over and done with.
A finished thing.

626
00:33:07,239 --> 00:33:09,239
Yes.

627
00:33:10,479 --> 00:33:12,879
But I think it's a nice name,
Kinlochbervie.

628
00:33:13,879 --> 00:33:15,879
A complete sound.

629
00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:18,519
A name you wouldn't forget easily.'

630
00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:22,960
I just think it's...

631
00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:26,479
It's... It's just so moving

632
00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:29,360
that she not been allowed...

633
00:33:29,479 --> 00:33:32,360
to name her child.

634
00:33:32,479 --> 00:33:35,040
And so she names...

635
00:33:35,159 --> 00:33:38,680
She sort of gives the name
of the place...

636
00:33:38,799 --> 00:33:41,199
..this weight...

637
00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:43,360
and power I think is...

638
00:33:43,479 --> 00:33:46,119
is just so beautiful.

639
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:50,040
You could follow the emotional
journey of that woman so easily.

640
00:33:50,159 --> 00:33:53,479
That's what he did, Brian,
all the time.

641
00:33:53,600 --> 00:33:56,960
He presented us with the interior
lives of his characters.

642
00:33:57,080 --> 00:34:01,000
You know most times, actors have
to invent backstory.

643
00:34:03,080 --> 00:34:06,199
Because writers don't give you much
so you invent your own.

644
00:34:06,879 --> 00:34:09,000
But with Brian, you know,

645
00:34:09,119 --> 00:34:11,320
you had a wealth

646
00:34:11,439 --> 00:34:13,799
of detail about your character.
Always.

647
00:34:14,919 --> 00:34:16,919
"You can take the entire script

648
00:34:17,040 --> 00:34:19,080
and you can cut out
on every single line

649
00:34:19,199 --> 00:34:21,199
you can lose, on every single page
you can lose two lines. Yeah.

650
00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:23,320
Two lines every single page
which means

651
00:34:23,439 --> 00:34:25,600
that you're gonna cut the play by
three quarters of an hour.

652
00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:27,320
Now if you do that,

653
00:34:27,439 --> 00:34:29,518
you then have to start re-rehearsing
the entire play."

654
00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:33,839
He used to always say
"I don't let the play leave my desk

655
00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:35,960
until I'm certain

656
00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:38,518
that that is what I want to say".

657
00:34:38,640 --> 00:34:41,479
And he would talk about the music
of the first production.

658
00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:43,719
That the music of the first
production

659
00:34:43,839 --> 00:34:45,839
defined the play very often.

660
00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:49,199
Now he doesn't mean just music as...
he means the way the actors...

661
00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:51,518
the way the whole thing came
together.

662
00:34:51,640 --> 00:34:54,439
And you did not dare

663
00:34:54,559 --> 00:34:56,879
to change a word

664
00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:00,199
or a comma even.

665
00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:02,839
And I remember we were doing a play

666
00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:05,559
at one point and this young actor

667
00:35:05,680 --> 00:35:08,400
she was very young and very
inexperienced.

668
00:35:08,518 --> 00:35:11,080
And she said, "Brian,

669
00:35:11,199 --> 00:35:13,839
I've been working on this
and this line doesn't work."

670
00:35:15,839 --> 00:35:18,799
Again, everybody in the room

671
00:35:18,919 --> 00:35:21,000
people dived for cover, y'know.

672
00:35:21,119 --> 00:35:23,799
And Brian looked at her over
his glasses

673
00:35:23,919 --> 00:35:26,040
and said
"It's your job to make it work."

674
00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:31,199
He wanted as much control
as he could have.

675
00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:34,159
He wouldn't change any of them,
y'know.

676
00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:36,879
He would freak if you did.

677
00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:39,280
(LAUGHS)

678
00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:53,520
NARRATOR: Brian would gain more
control

679
00:35:53,639 --> 00:35:55,560
of the production of his plays

680
00:35:55,679 --> 00:35:58,760
when he and Stephen Rea set up
their own theatre company

681
00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:00,959
called Field Day in 1980.

682
00:36:03,239 --> 00:36:05,239
I'd always wanted to have a company.

683
00:36:05,359 --> 00:36:07,239
A friend of mine drove me to Muff.

684
00:36:07,359 --> 00:36:09,880
Where Brian lived at the time.

685
00:36:10,840 --> 00:36:13,160
And when I said "Look, I think
there's some money

686
00:36:13,279 --> 00:36:16,919
in the Arts Council.
Is there ANY chance

687
00:36:17,039 --> 00:36:19,359
you could write a play for us?"

688
00:36:21,399 --> 00:36:23,719
And he says "Well, I'm writing
one at the moment".

689
00:36:24,599 --> 00:36:27,039
About, eh, place names.

690
00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:30,520
Eventually he sent me
I think the first act

691
00:36:30,639 --> 00:36:33,319
of 'Translations'.

692
00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:35,599
And I knew it was a masterpiece.

693
00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:39,800
And I knew that unless he had
a nervous breakdown

694
00:36:39,919 --> 00:36:42,200
the rest would be a masterpiece
as well, y'know.

695
00:36:43,760 --> 00:36:45,760
"I think ideally if we cut twenty
minutes off it,

696
00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:47,760
I think we'd be..."

697
00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:49,880
Stephen used to arrive
with a plastic bag

698
00:36:49,998 --> 00:36:53,160
with his belongings in it. Like
he was a kid brother to Brian

699
00:36:53,279 --> 00:36:55,279
at the time, he really was.
They were such pals.

700
00:36:55,399 --> 00:36:57,760
The kids used to call him
'Grumpy'.

701
00:36:57,880 --> 00:36:59,919
He never... (SHE LAUGHS)

702
00:37:00,039 --> 00:37:02,760
Y'see we'd have a meal,
we ate in the kitchen

703
00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:04,880
and Brian would be washing dishes.
Stephen never got up

704
00:37:04,998 --> 00:37:08,160
to lift a cup away from the table
or do anything ever.

705
00:37:08,279 --> 00:37:10,840
He just sat there
and you see these two kids

706
00:37:10,959 --> 00:37:13,200
were made lift and everything.

707
00:37:13,319 --> 00:37:15,599
No, they didn't approve of him
at times.

708
00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:18,760
But he was the best of craic,
he really was.

709
00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:21,359
And then we got on so well
together.

710
00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:26,440
'I must say to you that
if at any point

711
00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:29,959
you feel that the organisation
which is teetering into being

712
00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:32,359
will not do your play justice

713
00:37:32,480 --> 00:37:34,998
and you want to withdraw it

714
00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:37,719
and give it to someone who will

715
00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:41,279
I will understand
and not be offended. (LAUGHS)

716
00:37:42,959 --> 00:37:45,279
I may cut my throat but that's all.'

717
00:37:45,800 --> 00:37:48,639
'There is no reason why you should
sacrifice your work

718
00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:50,760
for some hare-brained scheme.

719
00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:52,998
Well it wasn't a hare-brained'
scheme.

720
00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:56,039
It was a moment that was...

721
00:37:56,919 --> 00:37:59,039
...where we completely...

722
00:38:00,359 --> 00:38:02,679
...got what our responsibility was

723
00:38:02,800 --> 00:38:04,800
in terms, as artists.

724
00:38:04,919 --> 00:38:07,599
For the place where we lived.

725
00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:11,880
"Stephen and I formed a company,

726
00:38:11,998 --> 00:38:14,039
got a company of actors together.

727
00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:16,319
And we're going into rehearsal
in a few months time."

728
00:38:17,520 --> 00:38:20,480
I mean working with 'Field Day'
was a terrific experience.

729
00:38:20,599 --> 00:38:22,919
Y'know, I was young at the time.

730
00:38:23,039 --> 00:38:26,520
And just to be caught up
in this atmosphere.

731
00:38:26,639 --> 00:38:28,959
There had been nothing like it
in Derry.

732
00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:32,359
Here was this theatre company
who were going to

733
00:38:32,480 --> 00:38:36,319
put on a play set in a hedge school
in County Donegal

734
00:38:36,440 --> 00:38:38,760
in the 19th century and they were
going to do it in the Guild Hall,

735
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:40,880
of all places.

736
00:38:40,998 --> 00:38:44,359
Everybody was aware that they were
doing something pioneering.

737
00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:46,520
I knew in so many ways

738
00:38:46,639 --> 00:38:48,760
it wasn't just the thoughts
and the ideas -

739
00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:50,800
it was trying to turn this space
that so wasn't a theatre

740
00:38:50,919 --> 00:38:52,719
into a theatre.

741
00:38:52,840 --> 00:38:54,840
But I remember the firs time
I met Brian.

742
00:38:54,959 --> 00:38:58,520
I was so, so shy.
And both he and Anne

743
00:38:58,639 --> 00:39:00,959
just looked me intently in the eye
and welcomed me.

744
00:39:01,080 --> 00:39:04,279
And ever since that it was like
you were a member of their family.

745
00:39:06,639 --> 00:39:09,279
I liked him but I was wary of him,
y'know?

746
00:39:09,399 --> 00:39:12,599
Because he's a playwright,
he's a famous playwright.

747
00:39:13,998 --> 00:39:16,080
And certainly he was there

748
00:39:16,200 --> 00:39:18,800
in the rehearsal room every day,
y'know?

749
00:39:22,679 --> 00:39:25,120
Smoking, y'know. Watching.

750
00:39:25,239 --> 00:39:28,039
"Let's go on. I'm alright,
yes I'm happy. Huh? Yes."

751
00:39:28,160 --> 00:39:30,840
NARRATOR: Outside of
the rehearsal room in Derry,

752
00:39:30,959 --> 00:39:32,880
political tension and violence

753
00:39:32,998 --> 00:39:35,919
continued to blight life
in Northern Ireland.

754
00:39:37,239 --> 00:39:39,399
FRIEL: "Well the bomb scares
make the place

755
00:39:39,520 --> 00:39:41,520
make the enterprise somehow surreal
in some way.

756
00:39:41,639 --> 00:39:43,639
It seems kind of strange
putting on a play

757
00:39:43,760 --> 00:39:46,279
when you're surrounded
by a revolutionary situation."

758
00:39:49,639 --> 00:39:52,160
I will never forget
as long as I live,

759
00:39:52,279 --> 00:39:55,800
that opening night of
'Translations' in Derry.

760
00:39:56,560 --> 00:39:59,279
The helicopter was up
hovering up above

761
00:39:59,399 --> 00:40:01,480
and you were searched going in
to the Guild Hall.

762
00:40:01,599 --> 00:40:03,639
The front of the hall was full

763
00:40:03,760 --> 00:40:07,080
of guests from the political arena.

764
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:12,319
I remember Martin McGuinness was
in the front row to the right.

765
00:40:14,279 --> 00:40:17,998
And Marlene Jefferson who was
the first female mayor of Derry

766
00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:20,120
was sitting in the front row
and everybody wondered

767
00:40:20,239 --> 00:40:22,239
what she would make of the play.

768
00:40:23,560 --> 00:40:25,560
And she, you know,
she was a Unionist.

769
00:40:25,679 --> 00:40:28,359
But she... an enormously
generous woman.

770
00:40:30,840 --> 00:40:33,160
And you know first nights
as you know

771
00:40:33,279 --> 00:40:36,080
are kind of awkward and
I wasn't sure how it'd go on.

772
00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:38,200
And Marlene...

773
00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:41,080
...was in the front,
she stood up.

774
00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:44,919
And gave us a standing...
Everybody had to rise with her.

775
00:40:45,039 --> 00:40:47,440
It's like Handel's Messiah,
y'know.

776
00:40:48,959 --> 00:40:51,279
And it became a triumph
at that moment.

777
00:40:51,880 --> 00:40:54,200
It was one of the most magical
nights ever

778
00:40:54,319 --> 00:40:56,840
I've experienced in the theatre.

779
00:40:56,959 --> 00:40:58,959
And it was really wonderful
for me to be there.

780
00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:01,919
One of the few times I say it to be
there on the first night,

781
00:41:02,039 --> 00:41:04,520
because I really had no idea

782
00:41:04,639 --> 00:41:06,760
about what I was going to see.

783
00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:11,399
So I just was transported.

784
00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:14,480
'So what do you think? Yes.
Are you happy with that? Yes.'

785
00:41:14,599 --> 00:41:16,800
NARRATOR: Set in 1833,

786
00:41:16,919 --> 00:41:18,919
the play tells the story
of what happens

787
00:41:19,039 --> 00:41:21,039
when a group of Royal Engineers

788
00:41:21,160 --> 00:41:23,359
arrive in the Irish speaking
community of Ballybeg,

789
00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:26,599
and begin translating the local
Gaelic place names into English

790
00:41:26,719 --> 00:41:29,919
for the first ordinance survey
of Ireland.

791
00:41:31,120 --> 00:41:34,080
And you look at that line again
"Remember words are signals".

792
00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:39,239
I just found this the other day.
This is the original...

793
00:41:40,359 --> 00:41:43,800
...script, working copy of
'Translations' that each of is got.

794
00:41:45,998 --> 00:41:48,319
And when I found it the other day,
this just great...

795
00:41:48,440 --> 00:41:52,399
(GASPS)...struck me in the heart,
y'know. The memory of it.

796
00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:55,959
'Translations' is an example

797
00:41:56,080 --> 00:41:58,399
of how he dealt
with the political question

798
00:41:58,520 --> 00:42:01,959
in a more oblique way
but yet it was so direct too.

799
00:42:02,080 --> 00:42:05,200
You know, the fact that
it talked about

800
00:42:05,319 --> 00:42:07,480
the removal of the Irish language
and it's impact on people

801
00:42:07,599 --> 00:42:09,359
and how you feel
this terrible sense of loss

802
00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:11,319
among the community in Ballybeg.

803
00:42:11,840 --> 00:42:14,679
The only thing now you need to add
into that is his pain.

804
00:42:14,800 --> 00:42:18,120
His personal pain. Mm, okay.
From the top? Yeah. Okay.

805
00:42:19,319 --> 00:42:21,800
'Yes, it's a rich language
lieutenant.'

806
00:42:22,520 --> 00:42:24,599
'Full of mythologies and fantasy.

807
00:42:25,319 --> 00:42:28,319
And hope and self deception.'

808
00:42:30,560 --> 00:42:33,160
'A syntax opulent with tomorrows.'

809
00:42:35,399 --> 00:42:38,359
'It is our response to mud cabins

810
00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:40,560
and the diet of potatoes.'

811
00:42:42,560 --> 00:42:45,080
'Our only method of replying to...

812
00:42:48,160 --> 00:42:50,160
...inevitabilities.'

813
00:42:50,279 --> 00:42:52,599
As Friel said to me himself

814
00:42:52,719 --> 00:42:54,719
it's all about language.

815
00:42:56,359 --> 00:42:59,760
And I said, what? The play?
'Translations'? The theatre?

816
00:42:59,880 --> 00:43:01,880
'No,' he says. 'Everything.

817
00:43:03,039 --> 00:43:05,679
Everything is about language.'

818
00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:07,840
And that has stayed with me.

819
00:43:07,959 --> 00:43:11,639
And that we were offering
language as...

820
00:43:13,760 --> 00:43:15,760
...a solution to...

821
00:43:15,880 --> 00:43:18,279
... the terrible, terrible things
that were going on

822
00:43:18,399 --> 00:43:21,800
in this town and in
this part of Ireland.

823
00:43:21,919 --> 00:43:24,880
"People say 'Oh, you belong
in the tradition of Irish drama.'

824
00:43:24,998 --> 00:43:28,560
Which is, they say then, Farquhar,
Wilde, Shaw, Sheridan, so on.

825
00:43:28,679 --> 00:43:30,840
And in fact these were all
Irish dramatists

826
00:43:30,959 --> 00:43:33,200
who went over and acquired a voice.

827
00:43:34,359 --> 00:43:36,359
An English voice so that they
could be more acceptable

828
00:43:36,480 --> 00:43:38,480
to English people.

829
00:43:38,599 --> 00:43:40,599
I think what Yeats did for us on
this island was that he said

830
00:43:40,719 --> 00:43:43,480
you don't have to do that,
you can stay on this island...

831
00:43:44,679 --> 00:43:47,760
...speak to your own people
in your own voice...

832
00:43:49,560 --> 00:43:51,959
...and find some kind of
completion in that."

833
00:43:52,679 --> 00:43:55,480
LIAM NEESON: It certainly was
a statement, y'know?

834
00:43:55,959 --> 00:43:59,800
And what a statement it was
with this extraordinary play.

835
00:43:59,919 --> 00:44:02,279
The changing of place names,

836
00:44:02,399 --> 00:44:05,840
these historic place names,
Irish place names into English.

837
00:44:06,440 --> 00:44:09,080
'Machrel buide. Ta. Machrel buide.'

838
00:44:09,200 --> 00:44:11,560
'Croch na mona. Croch na mona.'

839
00:44:11,679 --> 00:44:14,319
And Brian, with 'Translations'
certainly

840
00:44:14,440 --> 00:44:16,760
found the words

841
00:44:16,880 --> 00:44:20,359
and certainly words
that the play's based on.

842
00:44:20,480 --> 00:44:22,679
What's the right word to translate

843
00:44:22,800 --> 00:44:25,160
that Irish into English?

844
00:44:25,279 --> 00:44:27,840
'Ma raibh ceatog?'

845
00:44:27,959 --> 00:44:30,719
LIAM NEESON: And there's Yolland

846
00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:32,840
trying to find
the right words of love

847
00:44:32,959 --> 00:44:36,200
to express to this woman
who's speaking in Irish.

848
00:44:36,319 --> 00:44:39,440
It's just beautifully intermingled,
y'know?

849
00:44:40,760 --> 00:44:42,760
'Lis na na?'

850
00:44:43,399 --> 00:44:45,399
'Lios na ngra.'

851
00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:47,639
Such brilliant playmaking.

852
00:44:48,760 --> 00:44:50,998
These are two people, neither of
which speak the other's language.

853
00:44:51,120 --> 00:44:53,959
And one is speaking Irish,
the other is speaking English.

854
00:44:54,080 --> 00:44:57,080
But we are actually hearing both
in English.

855
00:44:57,840 --> 00:45:00,399
'Don't stop.
I know what you're saying.'

856
00:45:01,520 --> 00:45:03,520
'I would tell you
how I want to be here.'

857
00:45:06,480 --> 00:45:08,480
'To live here.'

858
00:45:09,399 --> 00:45:11,399
'With you.'

859
00:45:13,800 --> 00:45:15,599
'Always.'

860
00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:18,760
'Always. Always?'

861
00:45:19,840 --> 00:45:22,880
'Sorry what is that word? Always?'

862
00:45:22,998 --> 00:45:24,998
'Yes, yes, always.'

863
00:45:25,719 --> 00:45:28,998
And it's only a master
craftsman like Friel -

864
00:45:29,120 --> 00:45:32,359
could first of all dare
to think of that -

865
00:45:32,480 --> 00:45:35,480
and then actually

866
00:45:35,599 --> 00:45:37,998
make it work so brilliantly.

867
00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:41,160
The two participants can't
actually understand each other

868
00:45:41,279 --> 00:45:43,679
but the audience understands
both of them.

869
00:45:44,679 --> 00:45:47,998
That was so deft and simple
and dramatic

870
00:45:48,120 --> 00:45:50,399
and effective and moving.

871
00:45:51,359 --> 00:45:53,719
(SINGING FROM THE VAN)

872
00:45:54,760 --> 00:45:56,760
NARRATOR: Field Day's goal was
to take the play

873
00:45:56,880 --> 00:45:59,440
to Irish audiences
in small towns and villages

874
00:45:59,560 --> 00:46:01,599
all over the country.

875
00:46:02,480 --> 00:46:04,599
'Translations' has become
a modern classic.

876
00:46:05,520 --> 00:46:07,560
It's appeal to audiences
around the world

877
00:46:07,679 --> 00:46:10,560
has led to productions
from London and New York

878
00:46:10,679 --> 00:46:12,919
to Minsk and Mumbai.

879
00:46:16,279 --> 00:46:19,399
STEPHEN REA: This is us touring
with 'Translations'.

880
00:46:19,520 --> 00:46:22,760
Not everybody is there.
I dunno, Big Liam's not there.

881
00:46:23,840 --> 00:46:25,840
Oh, he's probably in the pub.

882
00:46:26,959 --> 00:46:28,998
We were just like
a little touring group.

883
00:46:29,120 --> 00:46:31,880
With this fresh, new, vital play.

884
00:46:32,880 --> 00:46:35,959
Barnstorming around Ireland.
One night stands.

885
00:46:36,080 --> 00:46:38,279
Going round village halls.

886
00:46:39,319 --> 00:46:42,200
Entertaining people but
with something rather special.

887
00:46:43,440 --> 00:46:45,560
We were on the road
for a long time

888
00:46:45,679 --> 00:46:47,840
and there was wearing and tearing

889
00:46:47,959 --> 00:46:51,399
and y'know, you didn't have big
deal dressing rooms, y'know.

890
00:46:52,120 --> 00:46:54,120
And I walked in

891
00:46:54,239 --> 00:46:56,239
to what was where we were
supposed to be changing

892
00:46:56,359 --> 00:46:59,880
and Roy Hanlon who was Scottish,
y'know?

893
00:47:01,599 --> 00:47:04,760
He was lying on a table,
trying to rest.

894
00:47:06,399 --> 00:47:08,998
And I says - Ah Roy, how are you?

895
00:47:09,520 --> 00:47:11,520
And he looks at me and he says -

896
00:47:11,639 --> 00:47:15,239
'Did you ever get the feeling your
career was moving backwards?'

897
00:47:16,560 --> 00:47:19,279
(LAUGHS) He did.

898
00:47:19,399 --> 00:47:21,399
Ah, dear.

899
00:47:21,520 --> 00:47:23,840
That's the pure actor response
to being on the road.

900
00:47:24,760 --> 00:47:28,440
And as we went round Ireland, he
and Anne would come and visit us.

901
00:47:28,560 --> 00:47:32,160
And it was like your parents
coming to see you, d'you know?

902
00:47:32,279 --> 00:47:34,239
To make sure you were alright

903
00:47:34,359 --> 00:47:36,679
and give you courage to keep
going cos it was hard, y'know.

904
00:47:36,800 --> 00:47:40,359
He loved actors. He really did,
he loved their company.

905
00:47:40,480 --> 00:47:42,480
He admired them enormously
for their courage.

906
00:47:42,599 --> 00:47:44,919
He would come to...

907
00:47:45,039 --> 00:47:48,359
..every opening night he could or
certainly send a telegram.

908
00:47:48,480 --> 00:47:50,599
Which I thought was so classy

909
00:47:50,719 --> 00:47:52,719
and so amazing.

910
00:47:52,840 --> 00:47:55,840
He was lovely. Grumpy.

911
00:47:55,959 --> 00:47:58,998
Lovely, like every

912
00:47:59,120 --> 00:48:01,399
older Irish man I know.
Grumpy and lovely.

913
00:48:01,520 --> 00:48:04,760
And pressing a fiver into my hand
to go up and get him a brandy.

914
00:48:04,880 --> 00:48:06,279
(LAUGHS)

915
00:48:06,399 --> 00:48:08,399
STEPHEN REA: He was a showman.

916
00:48:08,520 --> 00:48:10,520
But he was very,
very shy as well.

917
00:48:11,520 --> 00:48:14,279
But a few 'deochs'
and away he went, y'know.

918
00:48:15,719 --> 00:48:18,998
(LAUGHS) And he was great fun.

919
00:48:20,279 --> 00:48:22,279
Yeah, that's a good line,
shy man and a showman.

920
00:48:22,399 --> 00:48:25,080
That's it for me, yeah.

921
00:48:25,998 --> 00:48:28,480
In later years Brian,

922
00:48:28,599 --> 00:48:31,039
had a kind of an aversion
to directors.

923
00:48:31,160 --> 00:48:33,399
He said a certain point

924
00:48:33,520 --> 00:48:36,039
that we were like bus conductors,
he said.

925
00:48:36,160 --> 00:48:39,080
We were told we couldn't get rid
of bus conductors,

926
00:48:39,200 --> 00:48:41,200
we got rid of them and buses
still ran

927
00:48:41,319 --> 00:48:44,160
and they were perfectly... So we
could do the same with directors.

928
00:48:44,279 --> 00:48:46,560
Which I found a little
disconcerting,

929
00:48:46,679 --> 00:48:48,760
considering that I had just finished
doing a play with him

930
00:48:48,880 --> 00:48:50,998
when he said this.

931
00:48:51,120 --> 00:48:53,239
Brian had his opinions

932
00:48:53,359 --> 00:48:55,359
and he was marked by having

933
00:48:55,480 --> 00:48:58,639
very specific, unchanging positions

934
00:48:58,760 --> 00:49:01,239
on very many things.

935
00:49:01,359 --> 00:49:04,480
Including of course the role
of the director.

936
00:49:05,679 --> 00:49:08,039
Which he famously called

937
00:49:08,160 --> 00:49:10,520
'a bogus job.'

938
00:49:11,560 --> 00:49:14,200
That he didn't see the need
for them.

939
00:49:15,800 --> 00:49:18,279
Theatre had survived without them
up to a hundred years ago.

940
00:49:18,399 --> 00:49:20,800
And really there was
something bogus

941
00:49:20,919 --> 00:49:23,319
about the whole role
of the director.

942
00:49:23,959 --> 00:49:25,959
So you want to bear that in mind

943
00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:28,080
when you're directing Brian's plays.

944
00:49:29,520 --> 00:49:32,760
(GENTLE MUSIC)

945
00:49:32,880 --> 00:49:36,279
NARRATOR: Brian wrote a dozen more
plays after 'Translations',

946
00:49:36,399 --> 00:49:39,880
always pushing at the boundaries
of theatrical convention.

947
00:49:41,160 --> 00:49:43,160
But it was a return to Ballybeg

948
00:49:43,279 --> 00:49:45,319
and his childhood memories
of Glenties

949
00:49:45,440 --> 00:49:48,120
that brought him global recognition

950
00:49:48,239 --> 00:49:51,120
and an international hit late
in his career.

951
00:49:51,560 --> 00:49:54,520
FRIEL: "I feel that I'm in
someway...

952
00:49:55,719 --> 00:49:57,840
...haunted by my own past in some
kind of way."

953
00:49:57,959 --> 00:50:00,480
"By childhood memories and by...

954
00:50:00,599 --> 00:50:04,480
...loves that never happened and
loves that didn't flourish

955
00:50:04,599 --> 00:50:08,039
and angers that were misplaced
and misdirected."

956
00:50:09,279 --> 00:50:11,520
"So that I think

957
00:50:11,639 --> 00:50:13,719
this is one of the perks

958
00:50:13,840 --> 00:50:16,959
of literature is that you can
recreate your life

959
00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:19,080
as often as you wish."

960
00:50:21,399 --> 00:50:23,679
'Dancing at Lughnasa'
was a phenomenon.

961
00:50:23,800 --> 00:50:26,239
It was a phenomenon here,
it was a phenomenon in London,

962
00:50:26,359 --> 00:50:28,359
it was a phenomenon on Broadway.

963
00:50:28,480 --> 00:50:30,599
It ran on Broadway for
a long time.

964
00:50:30,719 --> 00:50:32,840
It won the Tony. It won the Tony
for it's director,

965
00:50:32,959 --> 00:50:35,840
and Tony nominations
for many of it's cast.

966
00:50:35,959 --> 00:50:38,679
It truly was a phenomenon.

967
00:50:39,679 --> 00:50:42,520
He was with Tom Kilroy in London

968
00:50:42,639 --> 00:50:44,919
and he was walking down the Strand.

969
00:50:45,039 --> 00:50:47,880
And there were all these...

970
00:50:47,998 --> 00:50:51,200
...virtually every door
in the Strand, even today

971
00:50:51,319 --> 00:50:54,800
had these sort of cardboard
quilted vagrants.

972
00:50:54,919 --> 00:50:57,599
And Brian said to Kilroy...

973
00:51:01,800 --> 00:51:04,239
...I'm sure there'll be
Irish people among them.

974
00:51:04,359 --> 00:51:07,599
And then he told him a
story of his aunts.

975
00:51:07,719 --> 00:51:11,639
Two of whom he believed
to have been

976
00:51:11,760 --> 00:51:14,679
vagrants sleeping on the street.

977
00:51:15,800 --> 00:51:18,760
And Kilroy said,
you must write a play.

978
00:51:18,880 --> 00:51:21,480
He had whatever facts
he had which were very few,

979
00:51:21,599 --> 00:51:23,919
I presume.

980
00:51:24,039 --> 00:51:26,319
And then entered into
an imaginative

981
00:51:26,440 --> 00:51:28,719
recreation of those people.

982
00:51:28,840 --> 00:51:32,399
And created the play which was
'Dancing at Lughnasa'.

983
00:51:34,599 --> 00:51:36,599
FRIEL: "When I was a boy

984
00:51:36,719 --> 00:51:38,880
we always spent a portion
of our summer holidays

985
00:51:38,998 --> 00:51:41,279
in my mother's old home
near the village of Glenties

986
00:51:41,399 --> 00:51:43,399
in County Donegal."

987
00:51:44,319 --> 00:51:46,440
"I have memories of those holidays

988
00:51:46,560 --> 00:51:49,480
that are as pellucid,
as intense

989
00:51:49,599 --> 00:51:51,599
as if they happened last week."

990
00:51:53,160 --> 00:51:56,800
"I remember in detail the shape of
cups hanging in the scullery.

991
00:51:57,599 --> 00:51:59,840
The pattern of flags on
the kitchen floor.

992
00:52:00,679 --> 00:52:04,239
Every knot of wood
on the wooden stairway.

993
00:52:04,359 --> 00:52:06,800
Every door handle. Every smell.

994
00:52:06,919 --> 00:52:09,800
The shape and texture of
every tree around the place."

995
00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:15,719
Friel sets it in a kitchen,

996
00:52:17,480 --> 00:52:20,760
of the Mundy sisters,
these five sisters.

997
00:52:21,880 --> 00:52:25,319
And this is probably his most
autobiographical play,

998
00:52:25,440 --> 00:52:28,279
because his mother was
one of the sisters

999
00:52:28,399 --> 00:52:30,520
and the four sisters
were his aunts.

1000
00:52:30,639 --> 00:52:32,639
Like she's letting out
something pagan

1001
00:52:32,760 --> 00:52:35,200
something wild in her.

1002
00:52:35,319 --> 00:52:37,319
And all his characters seems
to have that

1003
00:52:37,440 --> 00:52:39,440
so there's kind of a pleasure
in that isn't there.

1004
00:52:40,239 --> 00:52:42,239
NIAMH CUSACK: The reason I wanted
to play Maggie

1005
00:52:42,359 --> 00:52:44,319
was because of the dance.

1006
00:52:44,440 --> 00:52:47,760
She's been making the bread and
she's been told this story

1007
00:52:47,880 --> 00:52:50,800
about Bernie O'Donnell dancing
with this young man

1008
00:52:50,919 --> 00:52:53,998
that she, Maggie has been
in love with,

1009
00:52:54,120 --> 00:52:56,120
but never got near.

1010
00:52:56,239 --> 00:53:00,200
And you sort of feel that
she never let that show.

1011
00:53:02,880 --> 00:53:06,279
And she's finished the story and
Marconi's, the radio starts up.

1012
00:53:06,399 --> 00:53:08,200
(MUSIC PLAYS FROM THE RADIO)

1013
00:53:08,319 --> 00:53:10,319
'Maggie turns round.'

1014
00:53:10,440 --> 00:53:13,359
'Her head is cocked to the beat.
To the music.

1015
00:53:13,480 --> 00:53:16,560
She's breathing deeply, rapidly.

1016
00:53:16,679 --> 00:53:20,319
Now her features become animated
by a look of defiance,

1017
00:53:20,440 --> 00:53:23,998
of aggression,
a crude mask of happiness.'

1018
00:53:24,880 --> 00:53:28,359
'For a few seconds,
she stands still, listening.

1019
00:53:28,959 --> 00:53:30,959
Absorbing the rhythm,

1020
00:53:31,080 --> 00:53:33,080
surveying her sisters
with her defiant grimace.'

1021
00:53:34,279 --> 00:53:37,800
'Now she spreads her fingers
which are covered with flour,

1022
00:53:37,919 --> 00:53:39,959
pushes her hair back from
her face.

1023
00:53:40,080 --> 00:53:41,998
Pulls her hands down her cheeks

1024
00:53:42,120 --> 00:53:44,160
and patterns her face

1025
00:53:44,279 --> 00:53:46,120
with an instant mask.'

1026
00:53:46,239 --> 00:53:48,279
(SCREAMS)

1027
00:53:49,480 --> 00:53:52,719
'With this too loud music,
this pounding beat

1028
00:53:52,840 --> 00:53:54,919
this shouting, calling, singing,

1029
00:53:55,039 --> 00:53:57,639
this parodic reel,

1030
00:53:57,760 --> 00:54:00,800
there is a sense of order being
consciously subverted.

1031
00:54:01,880 --> 00:54:05,840
Of the women consciously and
crudely caricaturing themselves.

1032
00:54:06,760 --> 00:54:09,800
Indeed, of near hysteria
being induced.'

1033
00:54:10,998 --> 00:54:13,760
To me it was the most powerful

1034
00:54:13,880 --> 00:54:15,959
depiction of

1035
00:54:16,080 --> 00:54:19,800
the savage pagan aspect of dance

1036
00:54:19,919 --> 00:54:21,998
that I've ever seen staged

1037
00:54:22,120 --> 00:54:25,200
since Stravinsky and Nijinsky's
'Rite of Spring', you know,

1038
00:54:25,319 --> 00:54:27,399
which is in ballet repertories.

1039
00:54:27,520 --> 00:54:29,719
And there again that's...

1040
00:54:29,840 --> 00:54:32,039
It's something that wells up
and bursts out

1041
00:54:32,160 --> 00:54:34,480
and it's as if the dance

1042
00:54:34,599 --> 00:54:36,998
was expressing something

1043
00:54:37,120 --> 00:54:39,120
that they couldn't contain
it anymore.

1044
00:54:39,239 --> 00:54:41,279
You know they're very...

1045
00:54:42,359 --> 00:54:45,679
...restrained simple lives.

1046
00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:49,080
And whatever
their unhappinesses were

1047
00:54:49,200 --> 00:54:51,480
was buried and then this
explosion of dance.

1048
00:54:51,599 --> 00:54:55,120
It gives me goosebumps
to think about it.

1049
00:54:56,599 --> 00:54:59,679
What he said to me is
that words fail us,

1050
00:54:59,800 --> 00:55:03,160
at moments of great emotion.
'Language has become depleted

1051
00:55:03,279 --> 00:55:06,760
for me in some way. Words have lost
their accuracy and precision.

1052
00:55:06,880 --> 00:55:10,319
So I use dance in the play as a
surrogate for language.'

1053
00:55:10,959 --> 00:55:13,039
And because dance

1054
00:55:13,160 --> 00:55:15,520
is sort of the art of suggestion

1055
00:55:15,639 --> 00:55:18,399
and it's all about nuance

1056
00:55:18,520 --> 00:55:21,279
and it's all about what can be
expressed without words.

1057
00:55:22,760 --> 00:55:25,239
REPORTER: "It's a far cry
from Hollywood Boulevard

1058
00:55:25,359 --> 00:55:27,679
but Main St, Glenties was
about to get a visit

1059
00:55:27,800 --> 00:55:29,599
from one of the biggest names
in film."

1060
00:55:29,719 --> 00:55:31,719
"Meryl Streep was
the star of the show

1061
00:55:31,840 --> 00:55:34,399
and the show was a special
screening of her latest movie

1062
00:55:34,520 --> 00:55:37,959
Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa,
set in Donegal."

1063
00:55:38,080 --> 00:55:40,080
ANNE FRIEL: Aw, she was great.
She came to Glenties.

1064
00:55:40,200 --> 00:55:42,039
And she was lovely.

1065
00:55:42,160 --> 00:55:44,520
I think he thought this softened
it up a bit,

1066
00:55:46,719 --> 00:55:49,359
from what the original thing
would have been.

1067
00:55:49,480 --> 00:55:51,520
But that wouldn't have been
a success maybe

1068
00:55:51,639 --> 00:55:54,319
if it hadn't been (LAUGHS), yeah.

1069
00:55:55,440 --> 00:55:58,998
Cos they really had a tough time,
those girls in the play.

1070
00:55:59,120 --> 00:56:01,800
The original play, y'know,
their lives.

1071
00:56:02,679 --> 00:56:04,800
It wasn't all gentle.

1072
00:56:07,160 --> 00:56:09,560
(BIRDS SINGING)

1073
00:56:10,080 --> 00:56:12,160
There's a yearning
that I think touches

1074
00:56:12,279 --> 00:56:14,520
a lot of human beings.

1075
00:56:14,639 --> 00:56:17,120
You know there's something
in his plays

1076
00:56:17,239 --> 00:56:20,160
which is about reaching for love.

1077
00:56:20,279 --> 00:56:24,080
For being part of something

1078
00:56:24,200 --> 00:56:27,599
that I think we all recognise.

1079
00:56:27,719 --> 00:56:29,998
Friel's plays couldn't
be more specific

1080
00:56:30,120 --> 00:56:32,120
to a time and place.

1081
00:56:32,840 --> 00:56:35,279
That makes the universal.

1082
00:56:35,399 --> 00:56:39,359
That's why there's
ten thousand million,

1083
00:56:39,480 --> 00:56:42,120
trillion productions of Lughnasa,

1084
00:56:42,239 --> 00:56:44,800
because it speaks to everybody.

1085
00:56:45,440 --> 00:56:48,319
(GENTLE MUSIC)

1086
00:56:51,679 --> 00:56:54,160
He opened things up in a way

1087
00:56:54,279 --> 00:56:56,840
that has had a major impact

1088
00:56:56,959 --> 00:56:59,560
on younger writers and younger
directors and younger actors.

1089
00:57:00,919 --> 00:57:04,679
Everybody knew who he was
and everybody acknowledged

1090
00:57:04,919 --> 00:57:07,919
his mastery at what he did.

1091
00:57:09,880 --> 00:57:12,120
So yeah, he certainly has been

1092
00:57:12,239 --> 00:57:14,840
hugely, I think, influential.

1093
00:57:20,480 --> 00:57:25,160
(GENTLE MUSIC)

1094
00:57:31,160 --> 00:57:35,080
When he was very old,
I was in Ireland.

1095
00:57:35,200 --> 00:57:37,760
I just wanted to make a pilgrimage

1096
00:57:37,880 --> 00:57:40,200
to Brian in Donegal.

1097
00:57:40,319 --> 00:57:43,599
And had this delightful day
with Brian and Anne.

1098
00:57:44,919 --> 00:57:47,200
Brian was very pleased,
he really was.

1099
00:57:48,319 --> 00:57:51,039
Way back, the two of them
were in New York

1100
00:57:51,160 --> 00:57:53,399
when 'Philadelphia' went on,

1101
00:57:53,520 --> 00:57:56,200
and 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern'
went on.

1102
00:57:56,319 --> 00:57:59,240
So Brian had been following his
career all along.

1103
00:58:00,359 --> 00:58:03,160
Brian is one of the great
storytellers,

1104
00:58:03,279 --> 00:58:05,560
so we had this wonderful talk
together.

1105
00:58:05,679 --> 00:58:08,560
I suspect I did most
of the listening.

1106
00:58:08,679 --> 00:58:12,599
What you don't forget is what
it was like to be talking to him.

1107
00:58:13,279 --> 00:58:15,800
And sitting at a table with him

1108
00:58:18,520 --> 00:58:20,560
He died the following October.

1109
00:58:25,240 --> 00:58:28,319
(GENTLE MUSIC)

1110
00:58:34,999 --> 00:58:36,999
(CLOSING THEME)