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Three Plays After
"The Yalta Game: Two strangers meet on holiday and almost manage to convince one another that disappointments are 'merely the postponement of the complete happiness to come...'" "The Bear - A Vaudeville: Elena Popova, a young and attractive widow, has immersed herself in the role of mourning for her philandering but now dead husband. Luka, her frail and ancient man-servant, tries in vain to snap her out of it. Then Smirnov barges in..." Afterplay: 1920s Moscow, a small run-down cafe. Uncle Vanya's niece Sonya Serebriakova, now in her forties, is the only customer. Until the 'arrival of the Three Sisters' put-upon brother, Andrey Prozorov.
100 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
18 people want to read
About the author
Brian Friel
124 books137 followersBrian Friel is a playwright and, more recently, director of his own works from Ireland who now resides in County Donegal.
Friel was born in Omagh County Tyrone, the son of Patrick "Paddy" Friel, a primary school teacher and later a borough councillor in Derry, and Mary McLoone, postmistress of Glenties, County Donegal (Ulf Dantanus provides the most detail regarding Friel's parents and grandparents, see Books below). He received his education at St. Columb's College in Derry and the seminary at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth (1945-48) from which he received his B.A., then he received his teacher's training at St. Mary's Training College in Belfast, 1949-50. He married Anne Morrison in 1954, with whom he has four daughters and one son; they remain married. From 1950 until 1960, he worked as a Maths teacher in the Derry primary and intermediate school system, until taking leave in 1960 to live off his savings and pursue a career as writer. In 1966, the Friels moved from 13 Malborough Street, Derry to Muff, County Donegal, eventually settling outside Greencastle, County Donegal.
He was appointed to the Irish Senate in 1987 and served through 1989. In 1989, BBC Radio launched a "Brian Friel Season", a series devoted a six-play season to his work, the first living playwright to be so distinguished. In 1999 (April-August), Friel's 70th birthday was celebrated in Dublin with the Friel Festival during which ten of his plays were staged or presented as dramatic readings throughout Dublin; in conjunction with the festival were a conference, National Library exhibition, film screenings, outreach programs, pre-show talks, and the launching of a special issue of The Irish University Review devoted to the playwright; in 1999, he also received a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Times.
On 22 January 2006 Friel was presented with a gold Torc by President Mary McAleese in recognition of the fact that the members of Aosdána have elected him a Saoi. Only five members of Aosdána can hold this honour at any one time and Friel joined fellow Saoithe Louis leBrocquy, Benedict Kiely (d. 2007), Seamus Heaney and Anthony Cronin. On acceptance of the gold Torc, Friel quipped, "I knew that being made a Saoi, really getting this award, is extreme unction; it is a final anointment--Aosdana's last rites."
In November 2008, Queen's University of Belfast announced its intention to build a new theatre complex and research center to be named The Brian Friel Theatre and Centre for Theatre Research.
Friel was born in Omagh County Tyrone, the son of Patrick "Paddy" Friel, a primary school teacher and later a borough councillor in Derry, and Mary McLoone, postmistress of Glenties, County Donegal (Ulf Dantanus provides the most detail regarding Friel's parents and grandparents, see Books below). He received his education at St. Columb's College in Derry and the seminary at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth (1945-48) from which he received his B.A., then he received his teacher's training at St. Mary's Training College in Belfast, 1949-50. He married Anne Morrison in 1954, with whom he has four daughters and one son; they remain married. From 1950 until 1960, he worked as a Maths teacher in the Derry primary and intermediate school system, until taking leave in 1960 to live off his savings and pursue a career as writer. In 1966, the Friels moved from 13 Malborough Street, Derry to Muff, County Donegal, eventually settling outside Greencastle, County Donegal.
He was appointed to the Irish Senate in 1987 and served through 1989. In 1989, BBC Radio launched a "Brian Friel Season", a series devoted a six-play season to his work, the first living playwright to be so distinguished. In 1999 (April-August), Friel's 70th birthday was celebrated in Dublin with the Friel Festival during which ten of his plays were staged or presented as dramatic readings throughout Dublin; in conjunction with the festival were a conference, National Library exhibition, film screenings, outreach programs, pre-show talks, and the launching of a special issue of The Irish University Review devoted to the playwright; in 1999, he also received a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Times.
On 22 January 2006 Friel was presented with a gold Torc by President Mary McAleese in recognition of the fact that the members of Aosdána have elected him a Saoi. Only five members of Aosdána can hold this honour at any one time and Friel joined fellow Saoithe Louis leBrocquy, Benedict Kiely (d. 2007), Seamus Heaney and Anthony Cronin. On acceptance of the gold Torc, Friel quipped, "I knew that being made a Saoi, really getting this award, is extreme unction; it is a final anointment--Aosdana's last rites."
In November 2008, Queen's University of Belfast announced its intention to build a new theatre complex and research center to be named The Brian Friel Theatre and Centre for Theatre Research.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 25, 2017
I've reviewed The Yalta Game and Afterplay separately, so this is my review for The Bear.
I've read many of Friel's plays, and in just the last review I said that I was surprised I had not come across one I did not like. I spoke one play too soon. The Bear is not a bad play, per se, it's just not a likable one. It centers on Elena, a widow honoring her dead husband, despite his many flaws, and an unruly and unwanted visitor, Smirnov, who comes to her home to collect a debt. If there was any justice in the world, the fates would have directed the characters to any number of satisfying ends, but without much reason, they land in the one place that felt truly unjust - and this not as a condition of the world's injustice, but in an almost illogical and arbitrary way. The dialogue was great, as one might expect from a Friel work, but the decisions of the characters made little sense to me.
I've read many of Friel's plays, and in just the last review I said that I was surprised I had not come across one I did not like. I spoke one play too soon. The Bear is not a bad play, per se, it's just not a likable one. It centers on Elena, a widow honoring her dead husband, despite his many flaws, and an unruly and unwanted visitor, Smirnov, who comes to her home to collect a debt. If there was any justice in the world, the fates would have directed the characters to any number of satisfying ends, but without much reason, they land in the one place that felt truly unjust - and this not as a condition of the world's injustice, but in an almost illogical and arbitrary way. The dialogue was great, as one might expect from a Friel work, but the decisions of the characters made little sense to me.
Displaying 1 of 1 review