Friel, Brian (frēl), 1929–, Irish playwright, b. Killyglogher, Northern Ireland. Treating themes that enmesh both Irelands, he has become the most acclaimed contemporary Irish dramatist. Friel's family moved to Derry (1939), and he attended St. Patrick's College, Maynooth (B.A., 1949) and a teacher's training college. He taught for 10 years, published short stories, produced radio plays, and became a full-time writer in 1960. He studied (1963) with Tyrone Guthrie Guthrie, Sir Tyrone, 1900–1971, English stage director, playwright, and writer. Guthrie directed the Scottish National Players (1926–28), the Festival Theatre, Cambridge (1929–30), and the Old Vic–Sadler's Wells Company.
..... Click the link for more information. at his theater in Minneapolis, and while there wrote his first successful play, Philadelphia, Here I Come!, which deals with a young Irishman considering emigration to the United States. Since the 1970s Friel has written much about the political realities of the two Irelands, as in The Freedom of the City (1973) and Living Quarters (1977). In 1980 he and actor Stephen Rea formed the Field Day Theater Company, Northern Ireland, which soon (1981) produced Friel's Translations. Friel has also written of Irish family life, skillfully mingling it with surreal effects, in such plays as Aristocrats (1979) and the internationally known Dancing at Lughnasa (1990; Tony Award). Among his other plays are Lovers (1968), Volunteers (1975), Faith Healer (1979), Making History (1988), and Give Me Your Answer, Do! (1999). Friel also continues to write short stories.

Bibliography

See biography by G. O'Brien (1980); studies by E. S. Maxwell (1973), U. Dantanus (1985), E. Andrews (1995), and R. Pine, ed. (1997).

Friel, Brian

(born Jan. 9, 1929, near Omagh, County Tyrone, N.Ire.) Irish dramatist and short-story writer. Friel taught school in Londonderry before settling in County Donegal, Ireland. After The New Yorker began publishing his stories, he turned to writing full time. His first dramatic success was Philadelphia, Here I Come! (1963). Later he wrote about the dilemmas of Irish life and the troubles in Northern Ireland in such plays as The Freedom of the City (1973) and Making History (1988). Many of his plays—notably Translations (1980) and Dancing at Lughnasa (1990, Tony Award; film, 1998)—deal with family relationships and their connection to language, customs, and the land. His short-story collections include The Diviner (1983).