Play looks at continued foreign military presence

For the first time in Cyprus, Translations by Brian Friel will be staged, at the Main Stage of the Cyprus Theatre Organisation in Nicosia. Directed and co-translated by Irish/Cypriot theatre-maker Patrick Myles, this new production places Friel’s 1980 play into direct dialogue with Cyprus’ own history of partition, renaming and continued foreign military presence.

Set in rural Donegal in 1833, Translations unfolds in a hedge school at a moment of historic rupture. British military surveyors have arrived to translate Irish place names into English as part of a systematic mapping of the country. At the same time, the traditional Irish educational system is being replaced by the new National School system (taught solely in English), signalling the slow displacement of one cultural framework by another. As Irish names are anglicised and landscapes reclassified, the community of Baile Beag confronts the unsettling realisation that its world is being irrevocably altered.

This production will be performed in both Cypriot Greek dialect and in English by a cast of Cypriot actors playing the Irish roles and British actors playing the English officers, allowing linguistic hierarchy and political imbalance to unfold live on stage.

The translation is by Myles and Andreas Tselepos (who also plays Owen), and preserves Friel’s shifts between lyricism and plain speech, carefully navigating the play’s intricate linguistic dynamics and staying faithful to the time and setting of the original.

Director and co-translator Myles and co-translator/associate director Tselepos say: “Cyprus’ modern history has been shaped by British colonial rule and the division of the island in 1974, following the Turkish invasion. The continuing presence of British Sovereign Bases and Turkish troops gives the play’s themes of territory and sovereignty a contemporary relevance for Cypriot audiences, and the questions that Friel asks around language, memory and belonging will resonate in a country still marked by competing names and identities.”

The production opens in Nicosia on Saturday with an official premiere on April 4 with performances running until the middle of May. The performances on April 24 in Nicosia and May 15 in Limassol are surtitled in English and Turkish, expanding the play’s audience reach.

Translations

Brian Friel’s 1980s play presented by the Cyprus Theatre Organisation. March 28 – mid-May. Main Stage of the Cyprus Theatre Organisation, Nicosia. Friday-Saturday: 8pm. Sunday: 6pm. In Greek. With English-Turkish surtitles on April 24 and May 15. www.thoc.org.cy/el/events/translations