Coinciding with the acquisition by the Princeton University Library of
a significant and valued collection (more than 1,000 items) of
classic, contemporary, and rare Irish dramatic literature is Irish
playwright Brian Friel’s 1980 play “Translations,” as staged by the
McCarter Theater. The plans for this co-production with the Manhattan
Theater Club include a transfer to MTC’s Broadway venue, the Biltmore
Theater.
Under the studied and deferential direction of Garry Hynes, Tony
award-winner for “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” “Translations” seems
to have lost some of the translation in the large expanse of the
McCarter’s Matthews Theater. Hopefully, it will recover its inherent
ability to amuse and admonish us in the shallower depths of the
Biltmore. Hearing Friel’s lovely words distinctly is clearly an issue,
and a disconcerting one, that should be addressed by the director and
the fine company of actors charged with delivering them.
Ironically, words matter less in the play’s most memorable scene when
a Gaelic-speaking peasant girl and a British soldier have a romantic,
understandably humorous cross-cultural flirtation without either able
to comprehend a word the other is saying.
In another delightful scene, a whiskey-swigging, Gaelic-speaking old
Irish schoolmaster, who evidently never heard of order in the
classroom, lavishes upon his often preoccupied peasant students the
glories of the Latin and Greek cultures and languages. This he does
with relish, as he also tries to come to terms with the invasion of
the English and their language into his world. Although the play
contains some Gaelic, the dialogue is in English even when characters
are speaking Gaelic.
This beautifully written, if sad, study of the erosion of an
aesthetically graced culture is set mostly in an outmoded hedge school
in the town-land of Baile Beag/Bally Beg, in the community of County
Donegal. The year is 1833, just four years after the Catholic
Emancipation and a brigade of British Red-coats is enforcing an edict
– that all Irish place names be translated into English. While it is
both painful and somewhat mournful to see these earthy people, who for
centuries have been exalted by their paradoxically floridly
imaginative language, suddenly being reduced to “standardized”
English, it is seen as only part of the educational, social, and
political upheaval that alters the relationships in Friel’s informed
play.
If at first the well-intentioned, benign, and presumably supportive
changes and sudden linguistic barriers don’t exactly create an
upheaval among Friel’s rather complacent flock in their newly
administered society, the cautious optimism of both Hugh (Niall
Buggy), the intellectually stirring schoolmaster, and his one son,
Owen (Alan Cox), now a successful Dublin businessman who works for the
British as an interpreter, is soon to turn a little sour. Manus (David
Costabile), the other son, who has remained as heir to his father’s
tutorial legacy, remains pessimistic about the invaders’ long-term
effect. Lame since infancy, Manus also becomes increasingly despondent
by the kindling romance between his once intended girlfriend Maire
(Susan Lynch) and the handsome, eager-to-be-assimilated Lieutenant
Yolland (Chandler Williams).
The sad dichotomy of a family of scholars, and the misguided good
intentions of a favored nation upon a resolutely insularly spiritual
people, resound throughout the play. Not so paradoxically, the play
resonates poignantly in light of the Americanization of Iraq.
Certainly the British, among other gestures, will build new schools to
replace the makeshift hedge schools and reassess the taxes for the
common good. The set, the creation of designer Francis O’Connor, is an
old, grey, almost barren barn, notable for its massive shaky doors and
a wooden stairway without guard rails leading to the rafters. Davy
Cunningham’s atmospheric lighting, which includes a downpour, enhances
the mood.
Hynes has directed the play with unhurried control, and has assuredly
kept tabs on its colloquial unity. Garbed in worn out tail-coated
attire that occasionally includes a beaten-up top hat, Buggy makes as
fine looking a leprechaun as he does a doleful-eyed but aesthetically
uplifted schoolmaster. Williams, the lover cum Baile-Beag-struck
soldier, is convincingly romantic and dashing as the young Romeo.
Lynch is spirited and appealing, as the infatuated lass who yearns to
understand him.
Costabile’s bitter Manus extracts our empathy as he concedes both the
loss of his lover and the relinquishing of his opportunity at the
British school. Morgan Hallett turns in a fine performance as an
almost mute girl. Equally well characterized are Dermot Crowley, as
Jimmy, the barn’s constantly “potted” intellectual; Michael
Fitzgerald, as the doltish Doalty; and Graeme Malcolm, as the brash
British captain. “Translations” is less a perfect play than a
carefully textured poignant portrait of a people who cherished their
language and of a country that had no say in its future. The play’s
dramatic rewards, including its gentle humor, are almost too subtly
observed, but nevertheless deserving of the attention of a thoughtful
audience.
– Simon Saltzman
“Translations,” through Sunday, October 29, Matthews Theater at the
McCarter Theater, 91 University Place, Princeton. 609-258-ARTS (2787)
or www.mccarter.org.
