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ABSTRACT
Brian Friel acquired the appellation 'Ireland’s Chekhov' or the 'Irish Chekhov' during the 1970s when critics began to comment on similarities in their respective dramaturgies. Here Friel’s 'affinities' with Chekhov are outlined through his several observations on the playwright; a brief examination of three of his own plays with Chekhovian echoes and resonances; the consideration of his 'translations' of major plays described as “after Chekhov”; and an introductory appraisal of an original piece where Friel invents a fictional 'afterlife' meeting for two of Chekhov’s characters from different plays.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Pine, “Friel’s Irish Russia”; Roche, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Brian Friel, 107–108.
2. Friel is referring to Kathleen ni Houlihan, the female symbol of the island of Ireland.
3. Friel, “Seven Notes for a Festival Programme”; Murray, ed., Brian Friel, Essays, Diaries, Interviews: 1964–1999, 179.
4. Friel, “Ivan Turgenev (1818–1883),” A Month in the Country, Brian Friel Collected Plays, Vol. 4, 52.
5. Ibid., 52–53.
6. O’Toole, “Friel Public, Friel private,” The Irish Times, October 3, 2015.
7. Deane, “Introduction,” 10.
8. Murray, “Introduction,” Brian Friel, Essays, Diaries, Interviews: 1964–1999, ix.
9. Weir, “Guthrie dedicates 40th season’s Three Sisters to Tanya Moiseiwitsch”; Regional Reviews: Minneapolis/St. Paul, Talkin’ Broadway, 2003.
10. Royce and Preston, “Seven Stages of the Guthrie at 50,” Star Tribune, 10 April 2014 quoting Dan Sullivan’s original review in the Minneapolis Tribune.
11. Weir, as Endnote 9, quoting Howard Taubman’s original review in the New York Times.
12. Ibid., quoting businessman and arts advocate, John Cowles, who helped bring the Guthrie to Minneapolis.
13. Friel, “An Observer in Minneapolis”; Delaney, ed., Brian Friel in Conversation, 39.
14. Friel, “Self-Portrait (1972),” Brian Friel, Essays, Diaries, Interviews: 1964–1999, 42.
15. Friel, Brian, Philadelphia, Here I Come!, Collected Plays, Vol. 1, 89.
16. Hickey and Smith, “Two Playwrights with a Single Theme,” 222.
17. Guthrie reviewed the play for BBC Northern Ireland Home Service, 21 July 1966, noted in Delaney’s introduction to Friel’s “Philadelphia, Here the Author Comes!” Brian Friel in Conversation, 41.
18. The Guardian, June 16, 1992, 26.
19. Leavy, “Brian Friel one year on: A critical overview,” The Irish Times, October 2, 2016.
20. “In Interview with Mel Gussow (1991),” Brian Friel, Essays, Diaries, Interviews: 1964–1999, 144.
21. Murray, “The Chekhov Factor and Gender Issues,” The Theatre of Brian Friel, Tradition and Modernity, 126.
22. Pine, 106.
23. Worrall, “Non-Dramatic Writing,” File on Chekhov, 79.
24. Mulrine, “Introduction,” Chekhov on Theatre, (compiled) Hercher, Jutta and Urban, Peter, vii.
25. Trussler, “Introduction,” File on Chekhov, 6.
26. Mulrine, “Introduction,” Chekhov on Theatre, viii.
27. Friel, “Seven Notes for a Festival Programme (1999),” Brian Friel Essays, Diaries, Interviews:1964–1999, 175–178.
28. Pine, 107.
29. “In Interview with Elgy Gillespie (1981),” Brian Friel, Essays, Diaries, Interviews: 1964–1999, 96.
30. Kilroy’s free adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull relocated to Ireland, was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, 1981.
31. Kilroy, “I have lost a close friend in Brian Friel. The country has lost a great dramatist,” The Irish Times, October 2, 2015.
32. Ibid.
33. Peacock, “Translating the Past,” The Achievement of Brian Friel, 119–120.
34. Living Quarters, Collected Plays Vol. 2, 185–186.
35. O’Donoghue, “And When Did You Last See Your Father,” Programme Note, Aristocrats, Donmar Warehouse, London, 2018.
36. White, “Brian Friel, Thomas Murphy and the Use of Music in Contemporary Irish Drama,” 557.
37. Friel, “Seven Notes for a Festival Programme (1999),” Brian Friel Essays, Diaries, Interviews: 1964–1999, 177.
38. Aristocrats, Brian Friel Collected Plays, Vol.2, 332.
39. Ibid., 356-357
40. Dancing at Lughnasa, Brian Friel Collected Plays, Vol. 3, 512.
41. Ibid., 512.
42. Ibid., 476.
43. Ibid., 511–512.
44. The Troubles, also known as the Northern Ireland conflict, 1968–1990. Friel joined the civil rights march against internment in Derry on “Bloody Sunday”, 1972. His response to the event and its aftermath was The Freedom of the City produced concurrently by the Abbey Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre, London, 1973. Set in 1969 it depicts three marchers mistaken for terrorists accidently held in Derry’s Guildhall; the form is drama-documentary which enabled him for the first time to examine the interpretation of historical 'facts' and the ‘process‘ of history. Moreover, Translations and Three Sisters were premiered in Derry’s Guildhall which was surrounded by a security fence and proceedings were frequently interrupted: “A car bomb would abort the dress rehearsal for Three Sisters, and two bomb scares the day the play opened resulted in some opening night dialogue being drowned out by a circling helicopter” (Delaney, Brian Friel in Conversation, 153).
45. Friel, “Extracts from a Sporadic Diary (1979): Translations,” Brian Friel, Essays, Diaries, Interviews: 1964–1999, 74.
46. Translations, Collected Plays, Vol. 2, 459.
47. Ibid., 489–490.
48. “In Interview with Paddy Agnew (1980),” Brian Friel Essays, Diaries, Interviews: 1964–1999, 84.
49. Ibid., “In Interview with Elgy Gillespie (1981),” 97.
50. Ibid., Friel, “Seven Notes for a Festival Programme (1999),” 179.
51. Friel, ‘Programme Note, Three Sisters (after Chekhov), Field Day Theatre Company, Guildhall, Derry, September 8, 1981.
52. “In Interview with Elgy Gillespie (1981),” Brian Friel, Essays, Diaries, Interviews: 1964–1999, 100.
53. Nowlan, “Rewind ‘98,” The Irish Times, December 15, 1998.
54. Simon, “Uncle Vanya,” New York Magazine, July 26, 1999.
55. Coyle, Irish Theatre Magazine, February 10, 2012.
56. Friel, “Seven Notes for a Festival Programme (1999),” Brian Friel Essays, Diaries, Interviews: 1964–1999, 179.
57. Ibid., “In Interview with Elgy Gillespie (1981),” 100.
58. The Yalta Game, Collected Plays, Vol. 5, 95.
59. Fricker, The Guardian, October 11, 2001.
60. See note 58 above.
61. Ibid., 116.
62. Ibid., 96.
63. Ibid., 111.
64. Ibid., 111.
65. See note 59 above.
66. The Yalta Game, Collected Plays, Vol. 5, 116.
67. McGinley, RTE, October 11, 2001.
68. Pine, 113.
69. “Author’s Note,” The Bear, Collected Plays, Vol. 5, 121.
70. Ibid., 121 – here Friel is quoting Chekhov.
71. Ibid., 121 – again quoting Chekhov.
72. Ibid., 121 – Friel’s own comment on the play.
73. The Irish Times, 7 March 2002.
74. Colgan, “Brian Friel: Our extraordinary man from Buncrana,” Independent, 8 September 2002.
75. Friel, “Author’s Note”, Afterplay, Collected Plays, Vol. 5, 151.
76. See note 73 above.
77. Afterplay, Collected Plays, Vol. 5, 155–156.
78. Pine, 113–114.
79. See note 73 above.
80. Keating, The Irish Times, March 24, 2017.
81. Pine, 114.
82. Aosdana is an Irish association of artists, membership is by invitation and limited to 250 individuals. Friel was admitted in 1986.The award of Saoi (Wise One) is bestowed for life and held by at most seven people. Friel was awarded the title in 2006.
83. Aosdana’s homage on Friels’ death, RTE News, October 2, 2015.
84. Steiner, “Vodka Miniatures, Belching and Angry Cats,” The Observer, May 13, 2001.
85. New Hibernia Review, Vol. 19, no.3 (2015), 17–19.
86. Kilroy, The Irish Times, April 28, 1999, 4.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Nesta Jones
Nesta Jones is a Professor Emerita of Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance where she was formerly Head of Graduate Studies and Director of Research. She has long associations with several higher education institutions: Goldsmiths, University of London where she was Reader in Theatre Arts and Head of Drama for many years; Trinity College, University of Dublin, as a researcher, lecturer and examiner; the founding and development of The Lir, Ireland’s National Academy of Dramatic Art; and NYU London. Her publications include, Brian Friel in Faber and Faber’s Critical Guides Series, and “Brian Friel” for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, as well as books and essays on Sean O’Casey, JM Synge, David Mamet, Ken Russell, Cicely Berry and Tanika Gupta, and articles on performance and production processes. She has contributed numerous papers to international conferences; and has worked in the professional theatre directing productions and conducting workshops in the UK, across mainland Europe and in North America. She is on the Editorial Board of Stanislavski Studies (Taylor & Francis) and a Contributing Editor for New Theatre Quarterly (Cambridge University Press); and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.