Brian Friel's "Translations" is at the IU Theatre in a production directed by Bruce Burgun. "Translations" is a romance about history, love and language.
Burgun has taken on the awsome task of a presenting a story in which most of the speech is in English, but from many of the characters the audience has to believe that they are speaking Gaelic. There's even an intense love scene in which we see a man and a woman, speaking English whom we are to believe can't understand a word that they are saying. That the cast brings this off much of the time is a real coup. Unfortunately, sometimes the evening's accents were a bit heavy and there were periods when I had a tough time following the words.
However, the force of some of the individual characters and the power of this story of a nation where a language and with it much culture was about to disappear was a potent thing. George Bookwalter was often difficult to understand, but the sheer force of him as an old Irish schoolmaster was hard to resist. Jennifer Walls was a touching figure as the nearly mute student, Sarah. Ira Amyx was immensely appealing as Owen, the school master's son, who returns as the translator for the British Army Engineers who are creating the new map of Ireland. Ray Tice was a hoot as old Jimmy Jack, a fellow so into his classics that he's decided to marry Athene.
The story of "Translations" is of a culture on the edge of great changes. It's 1833. National Schools are beginning the substitution of English for Gaelic. The great potato famine that will make life for many in Ireland an economic disaster is only a decade away. The mapping project that is going on is substituting English translations for the old Irish names. Schoolmaster Hugh in one of his rich speeches says, "...it can happen that a civilization can be imprisoned in a linguistic contour that no longer matches the landscape." That's a deep thought in a play that richly dramatizes deep thoughts and deep feelings.