BBC - Brian Friel Shy Man, Showman (2022)

The playwright Brian Friel stands among the giants of Irish literature. He sits alongside Irish writing greats such as Heaney, Beckett and Yeats. His plays Faith Healer, Philadelphia Here I Come! and Translations took Irish theatre in completely new directions, while Dancing at Lughnasa brought it to totally different audiences.

Yet an unwillingness to talk to the press and a withdrawal from public life in the mid 1980s mean that many have not understood how influential he was and remains. This film sets out to show how Brian Friel redefined Irish theatre in the second half of the 20th century, with his widow Anne giving intimate access to previously non-public family photos, Brian's writing room, original notebooks and copies of first drafts of plays.

Artistic director of the Abbey Theatre Caitríona McLaughlin directs a workshop of actors reading extracts from Friel plays, highlighting his exploration of his era’s concerns around cultural identity, social change and political turmoil, the importance of language and the significance of history on the island of Ireland. Those ideas still resonate today. In a post-Brexit world, Friel’s work has never been more relevant.

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