Brian Friel once said of his 1980 play Translations that it was "about language, and only about language". Adrian Dunbar's new production at the Grand Opera House, Belfast (a transfer from its opening run in Derry-Londonderry) makes it difficult to sustain such a reductive interpretation.
The set, with stylised cut-out trees bent sideways by the lashing winds of rural Ireland, already looks symbolic, its deliberate minimalism suggesting a timeless quality in the action.
The sharply differentiated costumes also indicate that Dunbar feels that the contrast between the native Irish inhabitants of Ballybeg and the crisply uniformed British army detachment is unavoidably emblematic.
He's right: Friel's characters skirt close to stereotype on occasion, and undeniably view themselves as caught up in a cultural and political battle involving more than language pure and simple. In this context the Captain Lancey of Nick Tizzard makes a strong impression, self-righteously colonial to begin with, then chillingly seigneurial as he threatens eviction and the slaughter of livestock when the young Lieutenant Yolland (Paul Woodson) goes missing.
But in truth he has little opposition from the largely ineffectual native Irish, who seem too busy spouting Greek and Latin, or swallowing poteen, to offer much resistance to the soldiers tasked with "translating" local place names into the Queen's English.
That clash between the two contending factions never quite clicks powerfully into focus on a human level in Dunbar's production. The potentially explosive relationship between Yolland and Máire (Jade Yourell) is a little tamely projected, a case of tender puppy-love rather than impassioned attraction. More could also have been done to clarify exactly when it is that local characters are supposed to be speaking Irish (they actually speak English all the time), as much depends on this dramatically.
Overall, though, Dunbar's Transations is certainly a production worth seeing, and the play's examination of cultural colonialism still seems sharply relevant.
by Terry Blain
Translations ran at the Grand Opera House from April 23-27
