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From the author of Dancing at Lughnasa comes a new play.
Gathered together in the remote County Donegal home of novelist Tom Connolly and his alcoholic wife, Daisy, are David Knight, a visiting scholar who is valuing Tom's manuscripts and, by inference, his work; Garret Fitzmaurice, a commercially successful author whose marriage to the contemptuous Grainne is on the verge of disintegration; and Daisy's parents - her dapper, kleptomaniacal father and embittered, arthritic mother. Absent from the occasion, but palpable in her very absence, is the Connolly's mentally ill daughter, Bridget. In an evening fraught with recriminations, evasions, and painful revelations, a tale of professional rivalry, private despair, marital unhappiness, and sacrifice unfolds. As these wounded souls engage in their self-mocking, acerbic verbal duels, layers of defensive posturing are slowly stripped away, exposing each character's hopes, fears, and fragility, and the uncertainty and self-doubt at the heart of the very human quest for recognition.
Gathered together in the remote County Donegal home of novelist Tom Connolly and his alcoholic wife, Daisy, are David Knight, a visiting scholar who is valuing Tom's manuscripts and, by inference, his work; Garret Fitzmaurice, a commercially successful author whose marriage to the contemptuous Grainne is on the verge of disintegration; and Daisy's parents - her dapper, kleptomaniacal father and embittered, arthritic mother. Absent from the occasion, but palpable in her very absence, is the Connolly's mentally ill daughter, Bridget. In an evening fraught with recriminations, evasions, and painful revelations, a tale of professional rivalry, private despair, marital unhappiness, and sacrifice unfolds. As these wounded souls engage in their self-mocking, acerbic verbal duels, layers of defensive posturing are slowly stripped away, exposing each character's hopes, fears, and fragility, and the uncertainty and self-doubt at the heart of the very human quest for recognition.
96 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
20 people want to read
About the author
Brian Friel
124 books140 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 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 28, 2009
Ah, Friel is so good at making his audiences uncomfortable. This play follows a respected but not terribly successful Irish author Tom and his alcoholic wife Daisy, parents to a disturbed, institutionalized young woman. They have an uncomfortable dinner party with a commercially successful author and his wife, Daisy's parents, and an academic interested in buying Tom's papers for a university. Discomfort ensues, of course.
I don't know if the play works quite as well for folks who haven't spent all that much time studying contemporary Irish literature. I do know that we writers can't help but write about writers--we're not terribly good at remembering that most people don't actually find writers all that interesting, sadly, and that none of us is actually at the center of the universe. Sigh. But, if you like Dancing at Lughnasa or Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf then it's certainly worth a gander. Remember, plays are quite short, and make for great metro reading. Also, I want to be able to talk to more of my friends about Irish drama. Because I, like all of my kind, think the rest of you just need to realize how fun this Irish stuff is already.
I don't know if the play works quite as well for folks who haven't spent all that much time studying contemporary Irish literature. I do know that we writers can't help but write about writers--we're not terribly good at remembering that most people don't actually find writers all that interesting, sadly, and that none of us is actually at the center of the universe. Sigh. But, if you like Dancing at Lughnasa or Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf then it's certainly worth a gander. Remember, plays are quite short, and make for great metro reading. Also, I want to be able to talk to more of my friends about Irish drama. Because I, like all of my kind, think the rest of you just need to realize how fun this Irish stuff is already.
October 12, 2020
This is an undoubtedly well-written show with several complex characters, but the material is tired and a bit outdated. Honestly this show would best serve older, white, upper middle-class audiences - just enough scandal to be titillating but not enough to offend.
November 18, 2015
An awkward play about two creative types, novelist Tom and frustrated musician Daisy, living in isolation and caring for their disturbed daughter. Good fortune has arrived in the form of David, an archivist interested in purchasing Tom's papers, but can they escape their own ennui?
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews