Translations (The Nash)

He was a great Irish playwright long before he died.

I've just seen a Twitter thread pondering whether the playwright Frank McGuinness, who adapted Dancing at Lughnasa for the screen, is the same Frank McGuinness who penned an episode of Lexx -the Dark Zone. IMDB appears to confirm this, though IMDB isn't gospel. Can it possibly be true?

Saw this today, I loved the first part, but it lost me completely in the second act.

Beautiful staging and great performances though.

Saw it this evening and found it pretty interminable, I’m afraid.

It may just be that I have a monster cold and spent most of the overlong first half fighting the urge to cough, but I honestly think I’d have felt the same if I was in good health.

It just seemed to be a bunch of bumpkins wittering endlessly at each other about not very much at all, interspersed with some genuinely interesting moments about the value and meaning of language, and the promise of a he-fancies-her-but-she-fancies-the-other-guy confrontation that never came (for the audience anyway).

I understood what they were doing by ending with the armed guys but I really didn’t grasp what prompted the closing declamation.

Wow again! Are you stalking my old comments on different threads now? (moderators, can anything be done about her?)

I would also advise keeping Fairview comments on the Fairview thread. It's why we have different threads for things.

Well I’m going to put my two cents here and say I’d take Fryl to give me a dose of politics over the ton of plays that come out these days. He’s a bit like Chekhov and Ibsen where he writes about people and their lives who react to what’s going on in the world

It’s more subtle that way where the politics seep through the floor boards and the audience is left to discuss what they saw. I’d rather see that than a play where the playwright outright says whatever trending issue he’s going to address or make a big ham fisted coup de theatre by the end

Which is why I felt the ending took away from what was otherwise an interesting and occasionally poignant play

I agree the play slows down at times. It suddenly picked up for me when Fra Free turned up. That lad needs more attention because he works everyone beautifully and even when he’s not talking I enjoyed watching the facial acting he gives

I also enjoyed the moments between the locals and the soldiers trying to understand one another and the scenes between Owen and George working out how to anglicise the places names. A brilliant example of how to drive home your message

The acting all round I can’t complain.

Also the scene between George and moira is one of the most heart felt moments I’ve seen all year. It’s just a shame that, like previous posts have said, I couldn’t understand what happened between scenes in act 2

So yes this is a mixed bag. Not one of friels best and I could have done without the ending. But otherwise something I’m happy to have seen elevated by the acting

I loved it up until the Moira/George scene (which as others have said was just beautiful), then it just became confusing after that.

The girl is running around the stage and the next minute the brother is leaving town and George is missing. Was he meant to have seen them or not because we never saw that? Then the soldiers turn up and say they are going to destroy the entire area if he is not found. Really? Would they have REALLY done that because one soldier went missing? Or are we to take it that was their plan all along and they were just using this event as a catalyst? Then the Father starts babbling about something I couldn't hear very well, and then it was all over.

It all just felt like such a contrast to Act 1 which despite taking a while to warm up, was so beautifully written and interesting. In the end I was left feeling a bit baffled instead of shaken like I think I was supposed to when those lights came on.

I don't think anything is vague. It just isn't spoon fed. George was kidnapped and killed by the twins and his body disappeared in the hope recriminations would be at least delayed. The British response to this is the same as occupying forces the world over through all of history - for example, the raising of Fallujah by the USA in response to contractors being killed. It's a language well understood.

The brother leaves becasue he thinks the British will accuse him of George's disappearance (the girl having publically turned him down in favour of George).

The girl is not "running around the stage". God help us.

Billington's 5-star review. Translations review – a flawless take on Friel's culture-clash masterpiece :

www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/may/31/translations-review-brian-friel-culture-clash-language-ireland

Not spoon fed. Sure. And as I said I correctly guessed what had happened.

The problem is that up till that point the play didn’t jump ahead between scenes and left the audience to figure out some major plot points.

That and right before that last scene had been such an emotional high point with George and moira coming together and that girl seeing her and running off as intoanewlife says. I felt joyous and scared for the pair. Then suddenly we’re brought down to earth and left to put together the pieces

Ill judged I feel. Is that whole bit of the girl running round and round the stage part of the script or something the director put in the heighten the emotion?

I sound like I’m making this worse than it is. I’d still say half of the play, from Fra Free’s entrance to the pair coming together, is really good

Too late for the late for that, unfortunately. You've been reported to the moderators apparently.