When Captain Lancey and Lieutanent Yolland of the British Army are directed to rename and re-map Baile Ballybeag, Ireland, they've no idea of the rich language and history they're destroying.
This month The Irish Classical Theater Company is exploring what is lost when an ancient language is translated and transformed, in Brian Friel's "Translations."
For the ICTC, which doesn't deal strictly in Irish subjects, this production seems like a fitting endeavor for them to delve into. The setting of the play is in a small hedge-school of an Irish-speaking community in Ireland, the year 1833.
A hedge-school was a school once common in Ireland, usually held alongside a hedge or in the open air. It was basically a poor, low-class school, but as is demonstrated in the play, still a place where one could receive a good education.
The stage of the Andrews Theatre, representing the floor of the classroom, was strewn with hay, and students Maire (Kristen Tripp Kelley), Doalty (Steven Dawson) and Bridget (Sarah E. Coe) all took lessons on their small chalkboards from hedge-schoolmaster Hugh (Jim Mohr).
The pastoral set was nicely designed, consisting of old books laid upon makeshift tables, handmade wooden stools and benches, a butter-churner in the corner and a straw broom. Combined with rugged rural costumes designed by ICTC mainstay Geraldine Duskin, the play subtly transported the audience to the Irish countryside.
Mohr gave one of the strongest performances as hedge-schoolmaster Hugh, who is consistently late to class because of frequent stops to pubs along his walk to school. Part of Mohr's excellent stage presence was due to his genuine appearance, but most credit should be given to his flawless delivery of Friel's demanding script.
"A rich language, a rich literature. You'll find, sir, that certain cultures expend on their own vocabularies and syntax acquisitive energies and ostentations entirely lacking in their material lives," is a small example of Friel's text, which Mohr mastered in addition to his recitations of Homer, Virgil and other Latin musings.
Part of the central conflict of the play comes between brothers Manus (Peter Jaskowiak) and Owen (Paul Todaro), the sons of hedge-schoolmaster Hugh.
While Manus has helped his sometimes forgetful father with teaching at school and other tasks around the house, Owen has been off to other parts of Ireland and Britain, where he has become successful.
In the first act, Owen returns to Baile Ballybeag with British soldiers Lancey (Dan Walker) and Yolland (Brendan Powers) to help them rename and re-map Donegal County. Manus thinks what Owen is doing is wrong, and he doesn't take kindly to the British soldiers he has brought with him.
Todaro, who just returned from New York City's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club and has directed or acted in more than 20 ICTC productions, gave a solid performance as usual, displaying an internally confounded character.
His inner conflict represented the larger question that underlined the whole play: whether it is right to modernize, translate and change a culture's ways because they seem old-fashioned, or whether it is right to preserve and protect those traditions because they are an important and integral part of history.
This conflict permeated every character of the play, especially Lieutanent Yolland (Powers), the young soldier who becomes completely enthralled and enamored with the Irish countryside, and then falls in love with one of the students, the lovely lass Maire.
Powers constructed a perfectly na??ve and foolish character in Yolland, with whom it is impossible not to sympathize. His discovery of the Irish people and their ways is completely authentic and innocent.
Director Derek Campbell weaves the converging conflicts and in-depth characters seamlessly together to create a smooth flow from beginning to end. The play actually runs for over two hours, but the arrangement is so well done, that it seems to fly by.
"Translations" continues through April 4 at the Andrews Theatre, 625 Main St. Immediately after each Thursday night performance, there will be a chance to talk with the cast and/or director.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
