FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Cindy Moran, Public Relations Director, 414-224-1761 January 5, 2007 LYRICAL DRAMA EXPLORES THE RICHNESS OF LANGUAGE AND HISTORY WRITTEN BY BRIAN FRIEL Made possible in part by the generous support of: Quadracci Powerhouse Theater In 19th century rural Ireland, a young British officer leads an expedition to survey the landscape and convert the Irish names of age-old landmarks to the King’s English. His struggle to communicate with the Gaelic-speaking villagers reveals a culture far richer, and a people far more dedicated to defending their identity, than he ever could have expected. TRANSLATIONS is set in Baile Beag, in County Donegal, Ireland in 1833. Brian Friel's classic of modern Irish theater illuminates the conflict between English colonialism and the Irish attempt to preserve their strong culture. The play opens in an Irish Hedge School, where students often practice languages such as Greek and Latin. The schoolmaster Hugh’s youngest son, Owen, has taken a job as a translator to help two British officers, Captain Lancey and Lieutenant Yolland, Anglicize Ireland and translate the Gaelic maps and place names to the King’s English. The traditional Hedge School soon will be changed to a national school, where English will be the primary language in place of Gaelic. Yolland has trouble communicating with the Irish and after spending time in Ireland, he realizes that by Anglicizing the names of Irish landmarks and traditions, much of the Irish character will be lost. The English lieutenant finds himself becoming increasingly entranced with the romance of the country and also becomes interested in Maire, a local villager. Overcoming the language barrier, they form a relationship, much to the disappointment of Owen’s older brother, Manus. A chain of events is quickly set into motion reflecting the historical realities of the time. A gripping and challenging play, TRANSLATIONS focuses on Ireland’s struggle with England and the importance of cultural identity. Brian Friel was born January 9, 1929 in Omagh, a city located in Tyrone County of Northern Ireland. In 1939, the family moved to Derry when Friel’s father accepted a teaching position. Friel attended Saint Columb's College, and then attended the national seminary, St. Patrick’s College. However, he chose to take a post-graduate course in teaching rather than enter the priesthood. Friel returned to Derry in 1950 to teach, and wrote on the side, drafting radio plays for BBC and short stories for The New Yorker. He soon published two short story collections: The Saucer of Larks and The Gold in the Sea. In 1960 he retired from teaching to write full-time. His first major success came in 1964 when his play, PHILADELPHIA, HERE I COME! was a smash hit at the Dublin Theatre Festival. Soon THE LOVES OF CASS MCGUIRE and LOVERS, produced in 1966 and 1967 respectively, were highly successful in Ireland, as well as overseas. In 1981, TRANSLATIONS was awarded the Ewart-Biggs Peace Prize. The next year he was nominated as a member of Aosdána, a prestigious Irish association of distinctive artists. DANCING AT LUGHNASA, his most successful play to date (produced here at The Rep during the 1992/93 season) received three Tony Awards in 1992, including Best Play. Friel is also a gifted translator, having translated six Russian plays into English, including Turgenev’s A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY, seen on The Rep’s Quadracci Powerhouse Stage last season and directed by Ben Barnes. Director Ben Barnes returns to The Rep after directing a luminous production ofA MONTH IN THE COUNTRY last season. He was the founding Artistic Director of Ireland’s Opera Theatre Company and in a career spanning 25 years he has been a director of Groundwork, director of Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre and, most recently Artistic Director of the Abbey Theatre, Ireland’s National Theatre. Currently he is the Director of The Theatre Royal Waterford, Ireland’s oldest performing arts venue (1787). His productions have been seen all over the world – in Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Prague, Budapest, Barcelona, Athens, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tokyo, Boston, New York, Chicago, Toronto and Montreal, among other cities. Most recently he has directed THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST in Montreal and Toronto and the world premiere of Shelagh Stephenson’s new play ENLIGHTENMENT in Dublin and his production of THE PLOUGH AND THE STARS by Sean O’Casey opened the 2005 Barbican International Theatre Events (B.I.T.E.) in London. Ben lives with his wife, Julia, and daughters, Elishka and Milena, in Wexford in the South East of Ireland. Ben Barnes recently commented on TRANSLATIONS. “A dispassionate, analytical and balanced view of TRANSLATIONS demands that we set aside for a moment the emotive, romantic argument which casts the colonizer as villain and the colonized as victim and through some kind of myopic distortion sees the play as an elegy for the lost possibilities of a vanished civilization. Such a dispassionate view asks us to consider the malaise at the heart of Irish civil society in the first half of the 19th century. It suggests that the Irish were a people ripe for colonization and reform and that furthermore they welcomed it at best or tacitly conceded its inevitability at the very least. We do not have to look far in the text of TRANSLATIONS for such a view to be manifest. Maire, perhaps the most progressive character in the play, expresses her impatience with the prevailing inclination to see everything as doom laden: ‘We’re always sniffing about for it aren’t we? Looking for disaster. The rents are going to go up again – the harvest is going to be lost – the herring have gone away for ever – there’s going to be evictions. Honest to God, some of you people aren’t happy unless your’re miserable and you’ll not be content until you’re dead.” In her opposition to the ethos and teaching in the Hedge Schools and in setting herself up in direct opposition to the master, Hugh, Maire invokes the sentiments of the great Irish leader, Daniel O’Connell, when she reports his pronouncement that they should all be learning English and that “the old language is a barrier to modern progress.’” Included in the cast of TRANSLATIONS are Resident Acting Company Members: Mark Corkins (Captain Lancey); Jonathan Gillard Daly (Manus); Torrey Hanson (Owen); James Pickering (Hugh);and Peter Silbert (Jimmy Jack). Also included in the cast are Leah Curney (Maire); John Hoogenakker (Lieutenant Yolland); Colleen Madden (Sarah); Sarah Sokolovic (Bridget);and Jonathan Wainwright (Doalty). Members of The Rep’s 2006/07 Acting Intern Company who also appear in this production are: Chris Kennedy (Soldier/Ensemble); DeRanté Parker (Soldier/Ensemble); Demetrios Troy (Soldier/Ensemble); and Brent Vimtrup (Soldier/Ensemble). (To learn more about our Resident Acting Company, Guest Actors, or our Intern Company, please visit milwaukeerep.com). The production/design team for TRANSLATIONS includes Todd Rosenthal (Scenic Designer); Rachel Healy (Costume Designer); Kevin Lamotte (Lighting Designer); Lindsay Jones (Sound Designer); Cecilie 0’Reilly (Dialect Coach); Briana J. Fahey (Stage Manager); Amanda Weener (Assistant Stage Manager); and Paula Bennett (Assistant Director). Tickets to TRANSLATIONS range in price from $7.50 to $52.50. Students and senior citizens may purchase half-price RUSH TICKETS with proper identification 60 minutes before curtain time for all Quadracci Powerhouse performances at The Rep Ticket Office. For more information or to charge tickets, call 414-224-9490. Tickets can be purchased online 24/7 at milwaukeerep.com. For group sales of 20 or more, call The Rep Ticket Office at 414-224-9490. Open to the public before and after all evening performances, Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s newly-remodeled Stackner Cabaret, located on the second floor of the Milwaukee Center, is our own full-service bar and restaurant. Featuring delicious dinners, as well as late night cocktails, coffee, and desserts, the Cabaret is the ideal meeting place for patrons attending Rep performances. For dinner reservations, call 414-224-9490. Special Events for TRANSLATIONS
(For more information about The Rep’s Access Services, please contact The Rep’s Ticket Office at 414-224-9490.) LYRICAL DRAMA EXPLORES THE RICHNESS OF LANGUAGE AND HISTORY Written By Brian Friel FACT SHEET THEATER: Quadracci Powerhouse Theater DATES: January 10, 2007 – February 11, 2007 DESCRIPTION: In 19th-century rural Ireland, a young British officer leads an expedition to survey the landscape and convert the Irish names of age-old landmarks to the King’s English. His struggle to communicate with the Gaelic-speaking villagers reveals a culture far richer, and a people far more dedicated to defending their identity, than he ever could have expected. Moving gracefully between comedy, tragedy and romance, TRANSLATIONS is an acknowledged masterpiece from Ireland ’s greatest living playwright. PERFORMANCES: TICKET OFFICE LOCATION: TICKET PRICES: TICKETS/INFORMATION: 414-224-9490 or buy tickets online at milwaukeerep.com TICKET OFFICE HOURS: ### Open to the public before and after all evening performances, Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s newly-remodeled Stackner Cabaret, located on the second floor of the Milwaukee Center, is our own full-service bar and restaurant. Featuring delicious dinners, as well as late night cocktails, coffee, and desserts, the Cabaret is the ideal meeting place for patrons attending Rep performances. For dinner reservations, call 414-224-9490. The Stackner Cabaret is now smoke-free. Milwaukee Repertory Theater is a nationally recognized theater company that presents a critically-acclaimed selection of compelling dramas, powerful classics, award-winning contemporary works and lively Cabaret shows on three stages from September through May. The Rep also produces an annual production of A CHRISTMAS CAROL. The Rep’s home, the Patty and Jay Baker Theater Complex, contains the Quadracci Powerhouse Theater, the Stiemke Theater and the Stackner Cabaret. The Rep is also “home” to a Resident Acting Company of 11 actors who perform with The Rep throughout the season. The Rep is proud to be a cornerstone member of the United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF), which provides major annual financial support. The Rep is a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), a management association of some of the nation’s largest non-profit professional theaters that collectively bargains with the unions that represent the actors, directors and designers that work at The Rep; a constituent of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the nonprofit professional theater; and a member of Theatre Wisconsin, the statewide association of non-profit professional theaters. This theater operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States. The set, costume and lighting designers are members of United Scenic Artists, a national labor union. This theater is an equal opportunity employer. Except in plays where race itself is an issue, casting is decided based on ability, not race. Milwaukee Repertory Theater |
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