‘Translations’ Explores Power of Language
By Robert Trussell, The Kansas City Star, Mo.
Jul. 13–Of all the actors and directors in Kansas City, Mark Robbins probably has more direct experience with the plays of Brian Friel than anyone else.
In the early 1980s he played Owen, a central character in “Translations,” at what was then the Missouri Repertory Theatre when Friel’s historical drama was still a new play.
He made his directing debut in Unicorn Theatre’s 1997-98 season with Friel’s three-character monologue play “Molly Sweeney.” In May he played Frank Hardy, the tormented and self-destructive title character in Friel’s “Faith Healer,” another monologue play considered by many to be Friel’s masterpiece.
And now we come to a new production of “Translations,” also considered among Friel’s finest works, which Robbins is staging for Actors Theatre KC.
The three-act multicharacter drama examines the power of language and the names of places in an early 19th-century story that balances delightful narrative surprises, carefully drawn characters and the inevitable Gaelic sense of doom.
“It is a play I wanted to revisit on some level in some capacity at some point,” Robbins said recently. “My fond memories of this play, albeit 25 years old, are very good.”
Robbins enjoys a unique status as one of the most accomplished actors and most talented directors in Kansas City, and he has cast the show unpredictably but with a keen eye for talent and skill.
Among those who have appeared in previous Actors Theatre shows are Gary Holcombe, Cinnamon Schultz and Nathan Darrow. New to the company are Michael and Matt Rapport (father and son actors), Katie Gilchrist and longtime veteran of film, television and local theater T. Max Graham.
And Robbins has tapped graduates or current students in the University of Missouri-Kansas City theater department’s graduate actor training program: Elana Kepner, Logan Ernstthal and Nick Gehlfuss.
The play is set in 1833 in County Donegal at a time when the British army was mapping Ireland and replacing the ancient Gaelic place names with either literal English translations or Anglicized names that sounded vaguely like the originals.
The visiting English officers, Lt. Yolland (Darrow) and Capt. Lancey (Michael Rapport) can speak no Irish. Only a handful of locals speak English. Most of the action is set in an old barn that houses a hedge school — a system of rural education whereby local scholars tutored students of various ages in Irish history, literature and traditions as well as math and, in some cases, Greek and Latin.
At the time of the play, the English were setting up a national school system that would force all students to learn and study in English.
“For good or ill, they are an occupying force,” Robbins said. “This is the British Empire. And so the locals react in various stages of resentment and/or acceptance.”
Hugh, the master of the hedge school (Graham), has two sons, Manus (Matt Rapport), who works as the old man’s assistant, and Owen (Gehlfuss), who has returned from Dublin to be the official translator for the English mapmakers.
Aside from a few phrases in Greek and Latin, Friel writes all his dialogue in English. Nonetheless, there are cleverly constructed scenes in which characters who lack a common language simply cannot understand each other. At times the results are comical.
Early in the play, for example, Lancey addresses those gathered at the hedge school while Owen provides absurdly simplified and misleading translations.
Later, the young officer and the beautiful Maire (Gilchrist) leave a local dance together and try desperately to tell each other that they are falling in love.
“This scene is a little jewel set right in the center of the play,” Robbins said.
“The visiting young British officer falls in love with the countryside and feels drawn to Irish culture in a strange way and he’s also drawn to a young townswoman. … In the convention of the play, of course, the audience understands everything. There are wonderful opportunities for miscommunication and cross talk.”
Audiences, Robbins said, should have no difficulty determining when Irish or English is spoken.
“I actually believe Friel has done a pretty skillful job of setting that up and making it clear in the writing,” he said. “I have confidence in an audience’s ability to understand what’s going on.”
Considering Friel’s international stature and the quantity of his work — more than 30 plays — it’s a little surprising that “Translations” appears to be only the sixth professional local production of a Friel play in 40 years.
Robbins said he loves “the balance (Friel) strikes between the Irish penchant toward romanticism, which Friel delivers with a healthy sense of irony — tragic irony. Also, he has the sensibilities of a poet, which makes his language fun to speak and listen to.”
Friel has said that “Translations” is simply a play about language, and certainly it is, but it works on other levels as well.
The plot, Robbins said, is “the perfect storm of this cultural invasion taking place, so it works on a pro-Irish, anti-colonial level, but it is also a love story. And it’s about the power of names.”
In that sense, the British program of renaming every town, village, creek and crossroads was an act of violence, designed in part to destroy Irish culture.
“For the British to so blithely do this becomes monstrous, especially when you look at place names as being sort of sacred,” he said. “Just the act of changing them to English becomes even more brutal.”
One conflict Friel sidesteps in “Translations” is religion. There’s no mention of the Irish being Catholic or the British being Anglican.
“No, he chose to leave religion out of it, and I’m thankful to him for that,” Robbins said.
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THE SHOW “Translations” runs through Aug. 31 at the H&R Block City Stage at Union Station. Tickets: $15-$30; 816-235-6222; www.kcactors.org.
To reach Robert Trussell, call 816-234-4765 or send e-mail to rtrussell@kcstar.com
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Copyright (c) 2008, The Kansas City Star, Mo.
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