by Brian Friel. Directed by Allan Hart.
Performance dates and times :
Wednesday 18 – Saturday 21 and Tuesday 24 – Saturday 28 March at 7.30pm.
Matinées on Saturdays 21 and 28 March at 3pm.
At the Tower Theatre, Stoke Newington
Audition dates and times:
Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 December at 7pm at the Tower Theatre.
If you wish to audition please contact the director, Allan Hart, for information on which extracts to prepare depending on which role(s) you would like to audition for, and also if you cannot make either of the audition dates. There is no requirement to learn any lines for the audition.
Auditions are for Tower Theatre Company Members only.
If you would like to join the Company, please click here for more information.
About the play:
Brian Friel’s masterpiece Translations takes place during the summer of 1833 in a hedge school in the townland of Baile Beag, an Irish speaking community in County Donegal. Hedge schools were unofficial schools set up by a local teacher for the education of local community, teaching the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic and, in this particular case, the teaching of Latin and Greek.
In a nearby field camps a recently arrived detachment of the Royal engineers making the first Ordnance Survey of the area. For the purposes of cartography, the local Gaelic place names have to be rendered into English. In examining the effects of this operation on the lives of a small group of people, Friel skillfully reveals the far-reaching personal and cultural effects of an action which is at first sight purely administrative. The play explores the themes of language, culture and colonialism through the portrayal of the relationships of the ten characters.
The play is written entirely in English apart from the Gaelic place names for which coaching in pronunciation will be given. Help will also be given with the Donegal accent.
Cast:
Manus: (late twenties/early thirties) The older son of the school master, an unpaid assistant in the hedge school. He is intense, serious and hard working for little reward though he holds the school together. He walks with a permanent limp.
Hugh: (early sixties) The school master, A large man with residual dignity. A heavy drinker. He is a teacher of the classical languages, Latin and Greek and something of a poet himself, he is erudite, perceptive and at the same time pompous.
Sarah: Waif like in appearance and could be any age from seventeen to thirty. She has a serious speech defect so communicates physically by mime, gesture, facial expression and non-verbal sounds.She is clearly in love with Manus who is teaching her to speak, which she manages to achieve albeit for a short time.
Jimmy Jack: (late sixties) He lives alone, never washes or changes his clothes which he wears all day and night. He reads Homer and the Latin poets in the original. (Help will be given with pronunciation of Greek and Latin). He sees no difference between the worlds of Homer and Tacitus and his own world of Baile Beag.
Maire: (twenties) Strong minded and strong bodied but also sensitive and romantic. She and Manus have talked of marriage but it is a source of tension between them. She becomes romantically involved with Lieutenant Yolland which has far reaching consequences.
Doalty: (twenties) Open minded, open hearted, generous, humorous but none too bright.
Bridget: (twenties) fresh young woman, ready to laugh and join in the fun with Doalty. They form a double act. She possesses a country woman’s instinctive cunning.
Owen: (twenties) Manus’s younger brother, now a successful business man in Dublin. Easy going, charming and charismatic, he has been hired by the British army as a translator, a task he carries out enthusiastically until it rebounds on him.
Captain Lancey: (late forties/fifties) The commanding officer in charge of the Ordnance Survey. A crisp officer, impersonal, expert in cartography but uneasy with people. An efficient commander. The perfect colonial servant.
Lieutenant Yolland: (late twenties) Thin gangling, shy and awkward. A soldier by accident. Romantically intoxicated to Ireland and its culture. Attracted to Maire.
Rehearsals
Rehearsals will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings and during the afternoon on Saturdays or Sundays. There will be extra rehearsals as and when needed. All cast and crew will be required to attend the get in on Sunday 15 March, technical rehearsal on Monday 16 March, with the dress rehearsal on Tuesday 17 March.
 Allan Hart has been a Tower member for over 30 years and directed many productions including The Night Alive, Port Authority, My Mother Said I Never Should, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Abigail’s Party, Dealer’s Choice, Closer, The Weir and The Homecoming. He has also acted in several shows, notably Arcadia, Waiting for Godot, Twelve Angry Men, In Celebration, East, Blue Remembered Hills, Road and How the Other Half Loves. |
Assistant Director : Feiyang Yang
Set Design: Max Batty
Costume Design: Sue Carling
Lighting Design : Stephen Ley