GATE FRIEL: A CELEBRATION OF THE WORK OF BRIAN FRIEL
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Friel Years

The beginning..

In 1963, Hilton Edwards received a number of plays to consider for the Dublin Theatre Festival. He chose Philadelphia, Here I Come! by Brian Friel. In 1964 the Gate’s production opened at the Gaiety, with Donal Donnelly and Patrick Bedford in leading roles. It was the first production of Philadelphia, Here I Come! and the Gate’s first production of Brian Friel’s work. It transferred to New York and later embarked on a national US Tour. As it played on Broadway, Hilton Edwards co-produced and directed another Friel premiere, The Loves of Cass Maguire, in New York. In 1967, a third, Lovers, opened in Dublin with Fionnuala Flannagan, Eamon Morrissey, Anna Manahan & Niall Toibín. This production also transferred to New York. And in 1968, Crystal and Fox, starring Cyril Cusack and Maureen Taol in the title roles, was the Gate’s fourth Brian Friel world premiere in as many years.

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Under Michael Colgan’s directorship, the relationship developed further, with the Gate premiering ten works by Brian Friel in the past twenty years alone, including  The London Vertigo, Molly Sweeney, The Home Place and Friel’s versions of Uncle Vanya, Hedda Gabler and A Month in the Country.

Many of the Gate’s productions have also enjoyed successful transfers abroad, including Molly Sweeney to London and New York,  Two Plays After to Spoleto Festival in Charleston and a West End transfer for The Home Place in 2005. In 2006, the Gate’s production of Faith Healer, after a sell out Dublin run, played on Broadway, where it won a Tony award. Most recently in celebration of the playwright’s 80th birthday, GATE | FRIEL was part of the Sydney Festival 2009 and the Edinburgh International Festival in August.

Past Friel Productions at the Gate Theatre.

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T.P. McKenna and Catherine Byrne in the World Premiere of Molly Sweeney in 1994. Donal McCann and Karen Ardiff in the 1992 production of Brian Friel's version of A Month in the Country by Ivan Turgenev. Penelope Wilton and John Hurt in the 2002 production of Afterplay, which was seen in Dublin and London. The Alba String Quartet and Ion Caramitru as Leos Janacek in world premiere of Performances in 2003
Andrea Irvine, John Kavanagh and Derbhle Crotty in Dancing at Lughnasa in 2004. Eamon Morrissey in the Gate production of Brian Friel's The Bear Flora Montgomery and Stephen Brennan in Friel's version of The Bear, after Chekhov. Derbhle Crotty and Tom Courtenay in the world premiere of The Home Place, which was seen in Dublin and London in 2005
Ralph Fiennes as Frank Hardy in the 2006 production of Faith Healer, which was seen in Dublin and New York. Catherine Walker as Elena and Anthony Calf as Astrov in Brian Friel’s version of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya in 2007. Justine Mitchell as Hedda in the Gate Theatre production of Ibsen's 'Hedda Gabler' in a new version by Brian Friel. Photo Anthony Woods. 2008 Niall Buggy as Uncle Vanya in Brian Friels 1998
Kim Durham as Teddy in Brian Friel’s Faith Healer, Sydney Festival 2009 Risteárd Cooper as Gurov and Rebecca O’Mara as Anna in Friel’s version of The Yalta Game, Sydney Festival 2009 Francesca Annis as Sonya and Niall Buggy as Andrey in Afterplay by Brian Friel, Sydney Festival 2009  

 
 
Brian Friel
Brian Friel
Home Booking Chronology Theatre by Brian Friel Programme Notes Friel Years