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Translations
Arches Theatre Company
Communication, and how language can both enrich and corrupt, is at the heart of Brian Friel’s play Translations. The act of translation is key: how certain words, actions or ideas are interpreted can either bring bliss or ruin to an individual or a community.
The play is set in Baile Beag (or Ballybeg), the fictional town in which many of Friel’s plays take place. The year is 1833, and the British military has arrived to create an official map that will effectively Anglicise every name and landmark in Ireland. The majority of this occurs offstage, as the play is set in a rural classroom that looks more like a barn than a place of learning.
"There is not
one performance
below excellent...
greatly entertaining"
In truth, the map-making plot is nothing more than an excuse to allow the play’s ten characters to appear onstage. The play contains numerous themes and storylines: political tyranny, love triangles, classroom drama, sibling rivalry and father/son issues, to name just a few. And as in many of Friel’s great works, the play is filled with dramatic moments that are lovingly dipped in rich humour.
Indeed, far more engaging than any of the plot devices are the characters. And what a rich collection of characters this play offers. Each individual is crafted with care, fully alive at all times and always interesting. These are rural people who take more pleasure in speaking Greek and Latin and reading classical mythology than in debating the day-to-day political climate.
The biggest drawback of concentrating on any of the play’s plot threads is that they remove focus from the ensemble work, which is far and away more interesting. To even single out one or two characters would be unfair as each character, and each actor playing the part, is stellar. There is not one performance below excellent.
The real star of the evening is director Andy Arnold. His handling of the production is nearly seamless, with an excellent balance of humour and drama. Most importantly, no matter what is happening, each character completely inhabits the world created, whether actively contributing to the action or passively existing.
If there are any weaknesses, they can be found in the second act. Here, plot overshadows character, thus marginalising much of the cast into bit parts. The play concludes with many loose ends, an unsatisfying way to end a play if one is following the conventions of plot, but completely believable if you’ve been paying attention to all ten characters and their personal dilemmas.
Translations is a greatly entertaining production that draws you in with its rich landscape of full-bodied characters, even if it contains a frustrating plot that poses far more questions than it answers.
Michael Cox
Until February 2 at Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow. Tel: 0141 429 0022.
www.citz.co.uk
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What the papers said:
The Guardian:
**** "Despite some over-exuberance in the smaller roles, Andy Arnold's production for the Arches Theatre Company tackles [the play's] themes with intelligence"
The Herald:
**** "Arnold embraces the play's rough-shod poignancy"
The Scotsman:
**** "A lyrical but tightly-focussed production, which begins slowly and slightly hesitantly, but soon finds its range"
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