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Tower Theatre, 16 Northwold Road, London N16 7HR
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The action takes place in late August 1833 at a hedge school in the townland of Baile Beag, an Irish speaking community in County Donegal. In a nearby field camps a recently arrived detachment of the Royal Engineers, making the first Ordnance Survey.
For the purposes of cartography, the local Gaelic place names have to be recorded and rendered into English. In examining the effects of this operation on the lives of a small group, Brian Friel skilfully reveals the far reaching personal and cultural effects of an action which is at first sight purely administrative.
Written in 1980, he described Translations as “a play about language and only about language”, and was the first play to be staged by the Field Day Theatre Company, founded by Friel and actor Stephen Rea.