Acclaimed Irish playwright Brian Friel.
An ambitious five-year project celebrating the works of the late Brian Friel will stage each of the Irish dramatist's 29 plays in the location, setting and season in which it was set.
FrielDays – a Homecoming will celebrate the acclaimed playwright, often referred to as the "Irish Chekhov," by bringing his plays home to “the terroir, the communities and the landscapes” that inspired them, reports The Irish Times.
The festival will feature readings of Friel's notable works, such as his Tony award-winning "Dancing at Lughnasa," as well as those rarely staged, says Seán Doran, the artistic director of Arts Over Borders, which is organizing the huge cross-border event.
It begins this August and will build each year, so that by 2029, the centenary of Friel's 1929 birth, all 29 of his works will have been performed.
The plays will be staged in the north-west of Ireland - Friel's homeland and a constant source of his inspiration. The Irish writer, who died in 2015, lived in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland all his life, rooting his works in both.
“Brian Friel is Ireland’s preeminent dramatist of the late 20th century. He is the ultimate ‘shared island’ dramatist, the 86 years of his life shared almost equally between NI and the Republic of Ireland," Sean Doran and Liam Browne of Arts Over Borders, told IrishNews.
“Fittingly, FrielDays is a truly transnational cross-border project, bringing the stories and characters of Friel’s life’s work to the very locations that inspired their creation.”
The works will be staged across various community halls, churches, and schools in different village and towns.
“It’s using landscape in a sort of psycho-geography that helps trigger the plays in a more heightened way,” said Doran.
The plays will be read or performed in the season, or month, in which Friel set them, and some performances will enable the audience to watch in real time. "Translations," for example, will be set over several days.
As the majority are Friel's plays are set in August, the peak of each FrielDays year will be the continuation of the summer Lughnasa FrielFest, founded by Arts Over Borders in 2015.
FrielDays' 2025 program, running from August 1 to September 1, will see five of Friel's works staged: "Dancing at Lughnasa," "Translations," "The Home Place," "Faith Healer," and "Volunteers."
Early bird tickets will be on sale from February 1, 2025 at ArtsOverBorders.com.