Brian Friel

Brian Friel (9 January 1929 – 2 October 2015) was an Irish dramatist, author and director of the Field Day Theatre Company. Until his death, he was thought to be one of the greatest living English-language dramatists.Nightingale, Benedict. "Brian Friel's letters from an internal exile" . The Times. 23 February 2009. "But if it fuses warmth, humour and melancholy as seamlessly as it should, it will make a worthy birthday gift for Friel, who has just turned 80, and justify his status as one of Ireland's seven Saoi of the Aosdána, meaning that he can wear the Golden Torc round his neck and is now officially what we fans know him to be: a Wise Man of the People of Art and, maybe, the greatest living English-language dramatist."Canby, Vincent."Seeing, in Brian Friel's Ballybeg". The New York Times. 8 January 1996. "Brian Friel has been recognized as Ireland's greatest living playwright almost since the first production of "Philadelphia, Here I Come!" in Dublin in 1964. In succeeding years he has dazzled us with plays that speak in a language of unequaled poetic beauty and intensity. Such dramas as "Translations," "Dancing at Lughnasa" and "Wonderful Tennessee," among others, have given him a privileged place in our theater."Kemp, Conrad. "In the beginning was the image". Mail & Guardian. 25 June 2010. "Brian Friel, who wrote Translations and Philadelphia ... Here I Come, and who is regarded by many as one of the world's greatest living playwrights, has suggested that there is, in fact, no real need for a director on a production." Friel is best known for plays such as Philadelphia, Here I Come! and Dancing at Lughnasa, but has written more than thirty plays in a career spanning for sixty years.

Death
Friel died after a long illness on 2 October 2015 in Greencastle, County Donegal. He was 86.

References

Other websites


Faber and Faber  – UK publisher of Brian Friel's plays
About Friel: The Playwright and the Work  ed. by Tony Coult
Brian Friel in Conversation  ed. by Paul Delaney
The Diviner: The Art of Brian Friel  by Richard Pine

Category:1929 births
Category:2015 deaths
Category:Disease-related deaths in the Republic of Ireland
Category:Irish stage actors
Category:Northern Ireland people
Category:Tony Award winners