Translations

play by Friel

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July 16, 2026

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Brian Friel's play Translations (1980) is set in mid-19th-century Donegal, Ireland. The play depicts British Ordnance Survey engineers remapping and translating the Irish landscape into English. This work is considered a landmark in the transformation of Irish writing into a self-consciously postcolonial national literature. Friel, a prominent Irish playwright, explored themes of communication, mythmaking, and the complex relationships between narrative, history, and nationality in his works. He cofounded the Field Day Theatre Company, which aimed to address the damage caused by partition to Irish self-perception and representation.12

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Irish literature
The 1960s and beyond
…produced Field Day’s landmark play Translations; it is set in mid-19th-century Donegal, where British Ordnance Survey engineers are remapping and translating the Irish landscape into English. The play’s performance was a key moment in the transformation of Irish writing into a self-consciously postcolonial national literature.
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…produced Field Day’s landmark play Translations; it is set in mid-19th-century Donegal, where British Ordnance Survey engineers are remapping and translating the Irish landscape into English. The play’s performance was a key moment in the transformation of Irish writing into a self-consciously postcolonial national literature.
Read More